Wakare no uta
from Hōmon Hyakushu

Jakuzen

 

 

 

[53]

 

捨父逃逝遠到他土

 

たらちねの玉の台をあくがれて埴生の小屋に旅寝すべしや
tarachine no / tama no utena o / hanifu no koya ni / tabine su beshi ya

 

愚かなる子、父の長者を捨てて、遠くあくがれて他の国にさすらふ事を説くなり。長者をば如来にたとへ、愚かなる身をば二乗にたとふ。雲井はるかに思はぬふしなくして、海人の縄たく漁りする恨みを残しけん人なども思ひよそへられてあはれなり。

 

 

 

[54]

 

吾唯有汝何棄吾去

 

振り捨て八重の潮路にかかりなばひとりや老いの浪に沈まん
furisutete / yae no shioji ni / kakarinaba / hitori ya oi no / nami ni shizuman

 

慈童女長者といふものあり。宝をとらんがために海に入らんとす。その時母の別れを惜しみて止むる言葉なり。この世にも夜の鶴の思ひにたぐふ人多かれば、涙もよほす端となりぬべき文なり。

 

 

 

[58]

 

不審没此何生

 

しるべなきわれをば闇に迷はせていづこに月の澄まんとすらん
shirube naki / ware o ba yami ni / mayowasete / izuku ni tsuki no / suman to suran

 

これも天台の滅に入らせ給ひし時、智郎禅師といふ人問ひたてまつれる言葉なり。観音きたりて迎へ給ふべしとも答へ給へる。

 

 

 

 

 

Poems of Separation
from One Hundred Poems of the Dharma Gate

Translated by Patrick Donnelly and Stephen D. Miller

 

 

 

[53]

 

Abandoning one’s father, arriving in a strange land far away

 

     wandering
     longing
     for my father’s
     jeweled palace —
     shall I sleep
     in this hut
     on the dirt?

 

AS THE DAI TEACHES, the foolish child forsook the king his father, and longing from afar wandered through other lands. I liken the king to the Thus Come One, and the foolish child to the two vehicles. That far away cloud-palace, how poignant to consider, like the person who hauled in the fishing nets, grieving and regretting.

 

 

 

[54]

 

I have no one but you — why do you cast me aside and flee?

 

     if you forsake me —
          throwing yourself into
     
     the eight-fold salty roads —
          
          will I sink alone
     into the waves of old age?

 

THIS PASSAGE TELLS OF THE ELDER JIDŌNYO, who tried to enter the sea for the purpose of taking a treasure. But he stopped himself, regretting that he’d be separated from his mother, and spoke these words. This verse says that, because there are many in this world who understand “the evening feelings of the crane,” this was likely an occasion for tears.

 

 

 

[58]

 

You died here, but I wonder in which world you were born

 

     leaving me lost
     in the dark
     
     with no guide
     
     — where will the moon
     again come clear?

 

WHEN THE GREAT TEACHER of Tendai died, these are the words the disciple called Chirō spoke; this is the question he asked.

 

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