#008 わが庵は

わが庵は 
都のたつみ 
しかぞすむ 
世をうぢ山と 
人はいふなり

waga io wa miyako no tatsumi shika zo sumu yo o ujiyama to hito wa iu nari

Kisen, the (Buddhist) Monk

My mountain dwelling is south-east of the City.  Though I live content, my world's a "Mount of Sorrow"  they call Mount Uji, I hear. (trans. Köy Deli ) my hermitage is south-east of the capital I like where I live even when other people call it ujiyama - Maggot Mountain (trans. Jane Reichhold)

Kisen Hōshi source: wikicommons (Public Domain)

Crib

My hut/hermitage
is south-east of the capital/city,
thus (agreeably) I live,
(as for this) world/life: "Uji (Disagreeable) Mountain"
people say, so I've heard / i hear / it is rumoured.


Parsing 


waga io wa 
my | hut | topic marker
miyako no tatsumi 
City | of | south-east
shika zo sumu 
thus (agreeable) | particle | live 
yo o ujiyama to 
world | acc. particle | Uji (disagreeable) Mountain | quotative 
hito wa iu nari 
people | topic marker | say | so they say 


From 'io wa' to 'hito wa' - 'wa' may also be read as a contrastive particle - emphasising the contrast between an agreeable (shika) district (Tatsumi) that people say is disagreeable (Uji). 

Devices


The essential conceit appears to be a contrast between the Buddhist monk's experience (life is pleasant enough) and supposition (the world is sorrow, so it is said); between a play on words reading 'shika' (thus) as 'agreeable' and the name of Mount Uji as disagreeable; but the verse is playfully ambiguous and dense with word-play that allows for varying and contradictory readings.


south-east is made up of two words meaning dragon and snake (the districts around Kyoto, named after signs of the zodiac)
shika may mean thus, or agreeable, or deer


south-east of the City
we live peacefully
the dragons, snakes, deer and I


But the main play and question is around the name of Mount Uji, which acts as a pivot word, a homophone of words for disagreeable, bitter, grief, sorrow; and the question as to whether the monk-poet's mode of living should be read as being in contrast to the sentiment that the World is Sorrow, or in agreement with it.


The last line as people say, so I hear seems like a clue from a modern day cryptic crossword puzzle, alerting us to look for pun(s), just in case we may have missed them (and his 'cleverness'!?) - though use of pivot words is such a standard device of classical waka that it is not really one a reader familiar with the form should need alerting to - as if he doesn't trust that the cleverness of his readers may match his own - or to say, read carefully, there's more than one! It also adds to the contrastive sense, between what is said in the bottom two lines and the experiential of the top three.

I suspect there is word-play too in that Yamato was a name for Japan itself in the period - so Uji Yama to- "Uji Mountain", can perhaps be seen as microcosmic of all Japan (Uji Yamato) - うぢ山と - ujiyamato:

世をうぢ山と yo-o-uji-yama-to


as-for this world/life/society/age: (a) "Bitter Mountain" / sad Mountain Dwelling [Japan*]
people say, so I hear (人はいふなり). 



* quote
"Some say that in ancient Japanese 'to' meant "dwelling" and that because people dwelt in the mountains, the country was known as Yama-to - "mountain dwelling."
 Sources of Japanese Tradition: from earliest times to 1600 by Willian Theodore De Barry, Yoshiko Kurata Dystra, p.359

io	庵	Hut; hermitage;		1, 8
waga	わが	My; mine; one’s own; our;		1, 8
Wa (ha)	は	Emotive, emphatic or contrastive particle
miyako	都	City; capital;		8
no	の	Genitive particle
tatsumi	たつみ	South-east (dragon, snake)		8
shika	しか	Deer; just; is only;  only the/a; thus; agreeable, to one’s liking.		5, 8
zo	ぞ	Emotive particle
sumu	すむ	to reside; to live in; to inhabit; to dwell		8
yo	世	World; life; generation; society; age		8
wo	を	Direct object particle
uji	うじ	Disagreeable; grief; sorrow; bitter; maggot		8
yama	山	mountain
Ujiyama	うじ山	Place name, Uji Mountain		8
to	と	Conjunctive particle (even if); quotative particle (signifying end of direct quote).
hito	人	Person, man, (other) people;		8
ifu	いふ	to say		8
nari	なり	Supposition; hearsay (I hear; I’ve heard that, rumour has it;		8