even someone
free of passion as myself
feels sorrow:
snipe rising from a marsh
at evening in autumn
Selected Poems by Saigyo, 2011
Buddhist monk-poet Saigyo
Commentary: A Buddhist monk is supposed to be detached from the "world of red dust," a Buddhist set-phrase for the world and its suffering and passions, as stated in Ls 1&2, but ironically, this conscious detachment leads to the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things (both "a transient gentle sadness at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life") as depicted in Ls 4&5, which inspires feelings of pathos as described in L3.
Visually and emotionally speaking, this self-referential irony, a contrast between religious expectation and emotional/lived reality is effectively depicted in Buddhist monk-poet Saigyo’s passion tanka.
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