Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Former Senior High Priest Jien

Meaning

How bold it is of me — yet I spread my ink-black sleeves to shelter the people of this troubled world.

Commentary

"Ōke-naku" (overstepping/presumptuous) is the speaker's own self-deprecating qualification: he knows it is bold to claim the role of spiritual protector, yet he asserts it nonetheless. "Soma" (sacred timber forest) refers to Mt. Hiei, home of the great Tendai complex Enryaku-ji. The black-robed sleeves spread like wings over the people below.

Jien was senior high priest of Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei and one of the most learned clerics of his era. He also wrote Gukanshō, an early history of Japan from a Buddhist perspective. His poem expresses an ideal close to the Bodhisattva vow: the priest's prayers as a force of protection spread over all who suffer.

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