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The Hardness of Living in the World世のありにくさ

Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut) 方丈記 · Kamo no Chōmei · 1212 (Japan, 2nd year of the Kenryaku era) · 1 passages · 515 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 min

Hōjōki (An Account of My Hut) Complete in one volume "The flow of the river never ceases, and yet the water is not the water that was" — written eight hundred years ago by a man who lived through a great fire, a whirlwind, the moving of the capital, a famine and a great earthquake in Kyoto, one after another, and who then withdrew into a demountable hut one jō square. The record of the disasters becomes, just as it stands, a record of impermanence, and at the end he asks himself whether even the heart that loves that quiet is not a fault. Worth setting beside the Daodejing and the Dhammapada.

1Where should one live, and what should one do?

すべて世のありにくきこと、わが身とすみかとの、はかなくあだなるさまかくのごとし。いはむや所により、身のほどにしたがひて、心をなやますこと、あげてかぞふべからず。もしおのづから身かずならずして、權門のかたはらに居るものは深く悅ぶことあれども、大にたのしぶにあたはず。なげきある時も聲をあげて泣くことなし。進退やすからず、たちゐにつけて恐れをのゝくさま、たとへば、雀の鷹の巢に近づけるがごとし。もし貧しくして富める家の隣にをるものは、朝夕すぼき姿を耻ぢてへつらひつゝ出で入る妻子、僮僕のうらやめるさまを見るにも、富める家のひとのないがしろなるけしきを聞くにも、心念々にうごきて時としてやすからず。もしせばき地に居れば、近く炎上する時、その害をのがるゝことなし。もし邊地にあれば、往反わづらひ多く、盜賊の難はなれがたし。いきほひあるものは貪欲ふかく、ひとり身なるものは人にかろしめらる。寶あればおそれ多く、貧しければなげき切なり。人を賴めば身他のやつことなり、人をはごくめば心恩愛につかはる。世にしたがへば身くるし。またしたがはねば狂へるに似たり。いづれの所をしめ、いかなるわざをしてか、しばしもこの身をやどし玉ゆらも心をなぐさむべき。

Such, then, is the hardness of living in this world, and the fleeting, empty state of my own body and of the house I live in. Still more, the things that trouble the heart according to where one lives and what one's station is are past all counting.

If a man is of no account himself and lives beside the house of a powerful family, he cannot rejoice greatly even when he has deep cause for joy, and when he grieves he cannot lift his voice and weep. He is uneasy coming and going, and trembles with fear at every standing and sitting, like a sparrow that has come near the nest of a hawk.

If a man is poor and lives next door to a rich house, he is ashamed of his shabby figure morning and evening and goes in and out fawning. Whether he watches his wife and children and servants envying them, or hears how the people of the rich house look down on him, his heart is shaken moment by moment and is never at peace.

If he lives on a cramped plot, he cannot escape harm when a fire breaks out nearby. If he lives on the outskirts, his coming and going is full of trouble and he can hardly escape the danger of robbers.

The powerful are deep in greed; the man who stands alone is despised by others. Having wealth, he has much to fear; being poor, his grief cuts deep. Lean on another, and your body becomes another's servant. Care for another, and your heart is bound by affection. Follow the world, and your body suffers. Fail to follow it, and you look like a madman.

What place should one take, and what work should one do, to lodge this body even for a while and comfort the heart even for a moment?

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