192
In Ghostly Japan
92.—Tsuki ni murakumo, hana ni kazé.
Cloud-wrack to the moon; wind to flowers.[1]
93.—Tsuyu no inochi.
Human life is like the dew of morning.
94.—U-ki wa, kokoro ni ari.
Joy and sorrow exist only in the mind.
95.—Uri no tsuru ni nasubi wa naranu.
Egg-plants do not grow upon melon-vines.
96.—Uso mo hōben.
Even an untruth may serve as a device.[2]
97.—Waga ya no hotoké tattoshi.
My family ancestors were all excellent Buddhas.[3]
- ↑ The beauty of the moon is obscured by masses of clouds; the trees no sooner blossom than their flowers are scattered by the wind. All beauty is evanescent.
- ↑ That is, a pious device for effecting conversion. Such a device is justified especially by the famous parable of the third chapter of the Saddharma Pundarîka.
- ↑ Meaning that one most reveres the hotoké—the spirits of the dead regarded as Buddhas—in one’s own household-shrine. There is an ironical play upon the word hotoké, which may mean either a dead person simply, or a Buddha. Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: Nigéta sakana ni
