Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 95: Former Senior High Priest Jien
Try to find the kakekotoba hidden in the poem and tap it.
The word you tap will spin right where it is, revealing its two meanings in turn.
おほけなく
うき世の民に
おほふかな
わがたつ杣に
すみぞめの袖
Commentary
The word "sumizome" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "sumizome" carries both "墨染" (sumizome, ink-dyed robes) and "住み初め" (sumizome, just begun to live [on the mountain]).
Beyond my station though it may be, I find myself wishing to shelter the people of this troubled world beneath the sleeves of these ink-dyed robes — the robes of one who has only just begun to live on this mountain.
The poem layers the color of ink-dyed cloth with the poet's own recent arrival at Mount Hiei, expressing a monk's resolve to save the people of the world.
Packing two meanings into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
Presumptuously, beyond what one deserves.
This painful, troubled world.
I find myself wishing to shelter [them].
Expresses a wish to protect and embrace the people.
The mountain where I live. Refers to Mount Hiei. A phrase drawn from a poem by Saichō.
Robes dyed the color of ink.
In this poem, refers to a monk's robes.
The sleeve of a robe.