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Dhammapada · narration sample

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A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 47 of 101

46. The Priest Ne-yoshi-tada: Sō Ne-yoshi-tada

46

The Priest Ne-yoshi-tada

SŌ NE-YOSHI-TADA

Yura no to wo Wataru funabito Kaji wo tae Yukue mo shiranu Koi no michi kana.

THE fishing-boats are tossed about, When stormy winds blow strong; With rudder lost, how can they reach The port for which they long? So runs the old love-song.

Nothing is known of the writer of this verse, but he is said to have lived in. the tenth century. The meaning, not very clearly expressed in the translation, is that the course of true love is as uncertain as the course of the rudderless fishing-boats. In the illustration we see the fishing-boat tossing about on a rough sea and the rudder duly floating away astern.