平安時代に栄えた平泉は、江戸時代にはすでに衰退して藤原三代の館などはほとんどなくなっていました。江戸時代の松尾芭蕉はこの地を訪れ、田畑や草むらになってしまった藤原三代の館跡を見て涙しています。山や川は昔のまま変わらないのに、名君たちの館跡も武将たちの合戦跡も皆草むらとなってしまっている。ふと口ずさんだのが、杜甫の詩「国破れて山河あり 城春にして草木深し」。国はなくなっても自然はそのままである。そのままである自然が、かえって人の世の儚さを感じさせる。
Hiraizumi, which flourished during the Heian period, had already declined by the Edo period, and most of the Fujiwara residences had disappeared. Matsuo Basho, during the Edo period, visited this place and shed tears upon seeing the remnants of the Fujiwara residences that had turned into fields and overgrown grass. The mountains and rivers remained unchanged, yet the sites of the esteemed lords’ residences and the battlefields of the warriors had all turned into overgrown vegetation. He softly recited the poem by Du Fu:杜甫 “The country is destroyed, but mountains and rivers remain; the spring in the castle, yet the grass grows deep.” Even if the country is no more, nature remains as it was. The unchanging nature, in turn, accentuates the transience of human existence.
松尾芭蕉はそこで、歴史的名句を詠みます。「夏草や兵どもが夢の跡」繁る夏草、この場所は昔、功名を夢見た侍たちが戦った場所、その兵士たちも、夢のように儚くなってしまった。
In that place, Matsuo Basho composed a famous haiku: “Natsukusa ya / Tsuwamono domo ga / Yume no ato.” There are luxuriant summer grasses. There were warriors who once fought there, dreaming of glory and fame. Yet now, like a fleeting dream, those soldiers have vanished into oblivion.There are summer grasses.
コメント