逢ひがたき法を広めし聖こそ
うち見し人も導かれけれ
うち見し人も導かれけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Aigataki nori o hiromeshi hijiri koso uchimishi hito mo michibikarekere
- English Translation
-
The Law so hard to meet,
the holy one who spread it
far and wide, he it was
who led on even those who
caught a passing glimpse of him
- Meaning
- The holy one who spread the Law, so rarely encountered, led even those who merely glimpsed him onto the path.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 638
The holy man who spread the Buddha's Law, so rarely encountered, guided even those who merely glimpsed him onto the path. The poem praises both the difficulty of meeting the Law and the great virtue of the holy man who spread it.
Poems on the Law continue from 626 in this book, and this poem praises a holy man who spread it.
The author, Eien, was a son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke, Senior Assistant Minister of the Treasury, and as a monk of Kōfukuji rose to Provisional Archbishop. Famed for his poem on the cuckoo, he was called the Archbishop of the First Song.
First line, 'aigataki', means hard to meet, the difficulty of encountering the Buddha's Law.
Second line, 'nori o hiromeshi', means who spread the Law, the attributive shi of the past ki modifying hijiri in the third line.
Third line, 'hijiri koso', means the holy one indeed, the particle koso reaching to the final line.
Fourth line, 'uchimishi hito mo', means even those who merely glimpsed him, the prefix uchi adding the sense of lightly.
Final line, 'michibikarekere', means he guided them, the honorific ru followed by kere, the realis of the exclamatory keri, answering koso.
- Author
- Yoen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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