Classical Japanese Database

Text #40.

by #1. Matsuo Bashô (松尾芭蕉)

English title:

Saga Diary Excerpt

Japanese title:

嵯峨日記(4月22日)

Romanized title:

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Season:

Summer  

Subject:

sabi loneliness Saigyô  

Commentary:

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Japanese:

朝の間、雨降る。今日は、人もなく、さびしきままに、むだ書きして遊ぶ。その言葉、
　喪に居る者は、悲しみをあるじとし、酒飲む者は、楽しみをあるじとす。
　「さびしさなくば憂からまし」と西上人の詠みはべるは*、さびしさをあるじなるべし。
　また、詠める、
山里にこはまた誰を呼子鳥
　　　ひとり住まむと思ひしものを*
　ひとり住むほど、おもしろきはなし。
　長嘯隠士*の曰く、「客は半日の閑を得れば、あるじは半日の閑を失ふ」と。素堂、この言葉を常にあはれぶ。予もまた、
憂き我をさびしがらせよ閑古鳥
（うきわれを さびしがらせよ かんこどり）
　とは、ある寺にひとり居て言ひし句なり。

Romanization:

Translation #41:

TWENTY-SECOND

It rains during the morning. No visitors today. I feel lonely and amuse myself by writing at random. These are the words:
Who mourns makes grief his master.
Who drinks makes pleasure his master.
The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master. He also wrote:
In the mountain village
who are you calling yobuko-bird?
I thought you lived alone.
There's nothing so intriguing as living alone. Chosho, the recluse, said:
If one's guest enjoys a half-day's leisure,
His host loses a half-day's leisure.
Sodo is always moved by these words. I, too, feel it.
Not this melancholy,
cuckoo,
but your solitary song.