Part 3 of 5 · JLPT N2
寒山拾得 Kanzanshūtoku, part 3: Blind Reverence and the Road to Kokuseiji
In this part
The narrator pauses to sort people into three groups by how they relate to 'the Way': those indifferent to it, those who seek it, and those in between who revere, without understanding, people they believe are close to it. Ryo belongs to this last group, and he sets out in grand procession from Taishū, pleased with himself for honouring sages. After a night at the county magistrate's residence he reaches Kokuseiji, where the monk Dōgyō receives him and Ryo asks about Bukan.
AI translation · independently checked
こういう因縁があるので、閭は天台の国清寺をさして出かけるのである。It is because of this connection that Ryo now sets out for Kokuseiji on Mount Tendai.
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全体世の中の人の、道とか宗教とかいうものに対する態度に三通りある。Broadly speaking, people in this world take one of three attitudes towards such things as the Way or religion.
自分の職業に気を取られて、ただ営々役々と年月を送っている人は、道というものを顧みない。Those who are absorbed in their occupations and simply pass the months and years in busy toil pay no heed to anything called the Way.
これは読書人でも同じことである。The same is true even of men of letters.
もちろん書を読んで深く考えたら、道に到達せずにはいられまい。Of course, anyone who reads books and thinks deeply could hardly help arriving at the Way.
しかしそうまで考えないでも、日々の務めだけは弁じて行かれよう。Yet even without thinking that far, one can presumably still manage one's daily duties.
これは全く無頓着な人である。These are the people who are entirely indifferent.
つぎに着意して道を求める人がある。Next, there are people who set their minds on it and seek the Way.
専念に道を求めて、万事をなげうつこともあれば、日々の務めは怠らずに、たえず道に志していることもある。Some seek it single-mindedly and cast everything else aside; others never neglect their daily duties yet keep their hearts constantly set on the Way.
儒学に入っても、道教に入っても、仏法に入っても基督教に入っても同じことである。It makes no difference whether they enter Confucianism, Taoism, the Buddhist Law, or Christianity.
こういう人が深くはいり込むと日々の務めがすなわち道そのものになってしまう。When such people go deep enough, their daily duties end up becoming the Way itself.
つづめて言えばこれは皆道を求める人である。In short, these are all people who seek the Way.
この無頓着な人と、道を求める人との中間に、道というものの存在を客観的に認めていて、それに対して全く無頓着だというわけでもなく、さればと言ってみずから進んで道を求めるでもなく、自分をば道に疎遠な人だと諦念め、別に道に親密な人がいるように思って、それを尊敬する人がある。Between the indifferent and those who seek the Way, there are people who acknowledge objectively that such a thing as the Way exists, who are not entirely indifferent to it, yet who do not, for all that, go out of their way to seek it themselves; they resign themselves to being far removed from the Way, imagine that there are others who stand close to it, and revere those others.
尊敬はどの種類の人にもあるが、単に同じ対象を尊敬する場合を顧慮して言ってみると、道を求める人なら遅れているものが進んでいるものを尊敬することになり、ここに言う中間人物なら、自分のわからぬもの、会得することの出来ぬものを尊敬することになる。Reverence exists among every kind of person, but if we consider only the case where the same object is revered, then among those who seek the Way it means that those lagging behind revere those who have gone further, whereas for the in-between people described here it means revering something they do not understand, something they are unable to grasp.
そこに盲目の尊敬が生ずる。That is where blind reverence arises.
盲目の尊敬では、たまたまそれをさし向ける対象が正鵠を得ていても、なんにもならぬのである。With blind reverence, even if the object it happens to be directed at is the right one, it counts for nothing.
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閭は衣服を改め輿に乗って、台州の官舍を出た。Ryo changed his clothes, mounted his palanquin, and left the official residence of Taishū.
従者が数十人ある。He had several dozen attendants.
時は冬の初めで、霜が少し降っている。It was the beginning of winter, and there was a light frost.
椒江の支流で、始豊渓という川の左岸を迂回しつつ北へ進んで行く。The procession advanced northward, winding along the left bank of a river called the Shihōkei, a tributary of the Shōkō.
初め陰っていた空がようよう晴れて、蒼白い日が岸の紅葉を照している。The sky, overcast at first, gradually cleared, and a pale sun lit up the autumn maples along the banks.
路で出合う老幼は、皆輿を避けてひざまずく。The old and young they met on the road all stepped out of the palanquin's way and knelt.
輿の中では閭がひどくいい心持ちになっている。Inside the palanquin, Ryo was in a thoroughly agreeable mood.
牧民の職にいて賢者を礼するというのが、手柄のように思われて、閭に満足を与えるのである。To hold the office of governing the people and to pay his respects to a sage seemed to him a kind of achievement, and it gave him satisfaction.
台州から天台県までは六十里半ほどである。From Taishū to Tendai County is about sixty and a half li.
日本の六里半ほどである。That is about six and a half Japanese ri.
ゆるゆる輿を舁かせて来たので、県から役人の迎えに出たのに逢ったとき、もう午を過ぎていた。Since he had had his bearers carry the palanquin at a leisurely pace, it was already past noon when he met the officials who had come out from the county to receive him.
知県の官舎で休んで、馳走になりつつ聞いてみると、ここから国清寺までは、爪尖上がりの道がまた六十里ある。While resting at the county magistrate's residence and being treated to a meal, he made inquiries and learned that from there to Kokuseiji was another sixty li of steadily rising road.
往き着くまでには夜に入りそうである。It seemed that night would fall before he arrived.
そこで閭は知県の官舎に泊ることにした。So Ryo decided to stay the night at the magistrate's residence.
翌朝知県に送られて出た。The next morning he set off, seen on his way by the magistrate.
きょうもきのうに変らぬ天気である。The weather today was no different from yesterday's.
一体天台一万八千丈とは、いつ誰が測量したにしても、所詮高過ぎるようだが、とにかく虎のいる山である。Whoever it was that surveyed Mount Tendai at eighteen thousand jō, and whenever they did it, the figure seems far too high after all; but at any rate it is a mountain where tigers live.
道はなかなかきのうのようには捗らない。The going was not nearly as quick as the day before.
途中で午飯を食って、日が西に傾きかかったころ、国清寺の三門に着いた。They ate their midday meal along the way, and just as the sun was beginning to sink in the west, they arrived at the main gate of Kokuseiji.
智者大師の滅後に、隋の煬帝が立てたという寺である。It is said to be a temple built by Emperor Yang of the Sui after the death of the Great Master Chisha.
寺でも主簿のご参詣だというので、おろそかにはしない。Since this was a visit from the Chief Secretary, the temple did not treat it lightly either.
道翹という僧が出迎えて、閭を客間に案内した。A monk named Dōgyō came out to meet him and showed Ryo to the guest room.
さて茶菓の饗応が済むと、閭が問うた。When the hospitality of tea and sweets was over, Ryo asked:
「当寺に豊干という僧がおられましたか」"Was there a monk named Bukan at this temple?"
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning | JLPT |
|---|---|---|
| 因縁いんねん | connection; chain of causesOriginally a Buddhist term for cause and condition; now also 'fate' or 'pretext'. | — |
| 顧みないかえりみる | to pay heed to; to look back ondictionary form: 顧みるOften used in the negative: 〜を顧みない 'to give no thought to'. | N1 |
| 無頓着むとんじゃく | indifferent; unconcerned (read むとんじゃく here, as glossed in the text; the more common modern reading is むとんちゃく)Also read むとんちゃく; both readings appear in this passage. | — |
| なげうつなげうつ | to cast aside; to give updictionary form: 擲つLiterary; 万事をなげうつ means 'to abandon everything'. | — |
| 疎遠そえん | distant; estrangedOpposite of 親密 'intimate', which appears in the same sentence. | — |
| 会得えとく | understanding; grasping (through experience)Note the reading え for 会, not かい. | — |
| 盲目もうもく | blind (often figurative)盲目の尊敬 is 'blind reverence', the key idea of this digression. | — |
| 正鵠を得てせいこくをえる | to hit the mark; to be on targetdictionary form: 正鵠を得る正鵠 is the bull's-eye of a target. | — |
| 輿こし | palanquinA covered seat carried on poles by bearers; a sign of rank. | — |
| 迂回うかい | making a detour; winding around | — |
| 里り | a unit of distance (Chinese li / Japanese ri)A Chinese li was a fraction of a kilometre, a Japanese ri about 3.9 km, hence the narrator's conversion. | — |
| 馳走ちそう | treat; feast馳走になる 'to be treated to a meal'; today usually ご馳走. | — |
| 丈じょう | jō, an old unit of length (about 3 m)Ten 尺 (shaku); the narrator finds 18,000 jō an obvious exaggeration. | N1 |
| 捗らないはかどる | to make good progressdictionary form: 捗るUsually used of work or travel going smoothly. | N1 |
Grammar
〜ずにはいられまい N2 probably cannot help doing
〜ずにはいられない means 'cannot help but do'; replacing ない with the literary negative conjecture まい adds 'surely' or 'probably'.
道に到達せずにはいられまい。
could hardly help arriving at the Way.
〜つつ N2 while doing
A written-style equivalent of 〜ながら, attached to the verb stem: two actions happen at the same time.
始豊渓という川の左岸を迂回しつつ北へ進んで行く。
advanced northward, winding along the left bank of a river called the Shihōkei.
〜というわけでもなく、さればと言って〜でもなく N2 it is not that…, yet neither…
わけでもない denies a possible interpretation. さればと言って is a literary form of だからと言って, 'but that doesn't mean', and it introduces a second denial.
全く無頓着だというわけでもなく、さればと言ってみずから進んで道を求めるでもなく
who are not entirely indifferent to it, yet who do not, for all that, go out of their way to seek it themselves
〜にしても N3 even if; whoever/whenever it may be
Combined with question words (いつ, 誰), it means 'no matter who or when'. The main clause holds regardless.
いつ誰が測量したにしても、所詮高過ぎるようだが
Whoever it was that surveyed it, and whenever they did it, the figure seems far too high after all
〜ことになる N4 it amounts to; it turns out that
Here it presents a logical consequence: given the situation, the reverence 'comes down to' revering what one cannot understand.
自分のわからぬもの、会得することの出来ぬものを尊敬することになる。
it means revering something they do not understand, something they are unable to grasp.