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Hyakunin Isshu #95
Tuesday, 17 August 2010 07:00 Unworthy indeed,
I shelter the people of
this transient world --
I with my ink-black sleeves
in these "standing timbers."
ôkenaku
ukiyo no tami ni
ôu kana
waga tatsu soma ni
sumizome no sode
---L.
I shelter the people of
this transient world --
I with my ink-black sleeves
in these "standing timbers."
—8 August 2010
Original by Jien, son of Tadamichi (#76) and uncle of Yoshitsune (#91), written a few years before he became archbishop (as the title is usually translated) of the Tendai sect of Buddhism. Waga tatsu soma ni ("standing timber-forest I (enter/am) in") is quoting a line from a poem by the founder of the Tendai sect and its temples of Mt. Hiei northeast of Kyoto. The "standing timbers" can be both the wooden temple and the forest of Mt. Hiei ("woodcutter mountain," alluded to by soma meaning both timber and woodcutter). The black sleeves are part of his clerical garb.ôkenaku
ukiyo no tami ni
ôu kana
waga tatsu soma ni
sumizome no sode
---L.