Front
Back
Japanese
English
Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
道因法師
思ひわび
さても命は
あるものを
憂きにたへぬは
涙なりけり
うきにたへ
ぬはなみた
なりけり
おも
- Poem 82
- 思ひわび
さても命は
あるものを
憂きにたへぬは 涙なりけり
Author: Priest Dōin (1090–death year unknown)
Source: Senzai Wakashū, Love
- English Verse Translation
- How sad and gloomy is the world, This world of sin and woe! Ah! while I drift along Life's
stream, Tossed helpless to and fro, My tears will ever flow.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- I am exhausted with sorrow, yet somehow I am still alive. What cannot endure is not my life — but my tears.
- Commentary
- This poem expresses the pain of heartbreak, grieving over a lover's coldness. Even as an overwhelming sorrow washes over him, the poem reveals the poet's quiet resolve to keep on living regardless.
- About the Poet
- Priest Dōin, born Fujiwara no Atsuyori, served in the court post of Assistant Master of the Imperial Stables, overseeing the care of horses, and rose to the rank of Junior Fifth Rank, Upper. In hopes of composing ever-better poetry, he is said to have walked on foot from Kyoto to Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Osaka every month between the ages of seventy and eighty. Even after taking Buddhist vows past eighty, he continued attending poetry gatherings well into his nineties, listening eagerly to critiques — a lifelong devotion to the art of poetry.
- Priest Dōin's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
However much I try to hold back my tears,
they quietly fall down my cheeks.And still, meaning to live through today,
I carry this sorrow close to my heart.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).