金曜日の読書の西行の解説書、今回は西行51才の時の四国への旅(1167)です。四国に行ったのは、讃岐に流されて4年前に亡くなった崇徳院と370年前に四国で育った空海(784-835)のゆかりの地を訪ねるためです。この旅で詠まれた名作がいくつかあります。
（詞書）讃岐に詣でて、松山の津という所に、院(崇徳院)おはしましけん御跡たづねけれど、かたもなかりければ。
松山の 波に流れて 来（こ）し舟の やがてむなしく なりにけるかな
Having come to Sanuki, I was at a place called the Cove of Matsuyama. I looked around for the exact location where the Retired Emperor had resided, but no trace of his earlier presence could be found.
The ship he was on crossed the waves to Matsuyama and then suddenly disappeared—as he too slipped down below our horizon.
cove は コウヴ 入り江、人、やつ level 11
（詞書）讃岐の善通寺の山にて、海の月をみて
くもりなき 山にて海の 月見れば 島ぞ 氷のたえまなりける
Having come to Sanuki, I was at a place called the Cove of Matsuyama. I looked around for the exact location where the Retired Emperor had resided, but no trace of his earlier presence could be found.
Cloudfree mountains / encircle the sea, which holds /
the reflected moon: / this transforms islands into /
emptiness holes in a sea of ice.
解説が名文なので、長いですがそのまま引用します。 The fact that Saigyō was positioned high enough to look down on an array of smaller islands, themselves in a sea formed within two much larger islands （本州と四国のこと）, is the positional starting point for this extraordinary poem. But Saigyō does not so much record the natural beauty as turn what he sees into a transmogrified （魔法で一変させられた） vision. The state of his mind appears to be ecstatic — perhaps because the nexus （ネクサス、近傍） with Kūkai has begun to suggest to him that what lies before his eyes is not unlike a mandala brought into being by natural forms. The unparalleled brightness of the moon creates an unusual limpidity （りン「ピ」ディティ 清澄さ） in the poet’s mind, resulting in a mode of visual and mental play （視覚および精神の劇）. Suddenly the waters of the sea seem transformed into a massive plane of ice, and the islands therein seem no longer convex （凸） but now concave （凹）. Their darkened presence within the space of the glistening （きらきら輝く） span of the sea makes them appear as holes within a vast sheet of ice. And taema, the last line’s word for “interstice”（イン「タ」ースティス 割れ目、裂け目、すきま） or “hole,” is sufficiently resonant with the Buddhist notion of sunyata or “emptiness” （空 くう） that this word insinuates （イン「スィ」ニュエイト ほのめかす、あてこする 使うときは要注意単語です） into the poem a motif of higher-level unity of things （万物の高いレベルの一体性） that had looked separate on lower levels. The poem is, in the best sense of that word, “metaphysical.” But that it has a cerebral （大脳の、知的な） dimension does not mean it was not rooted in profound and ecstatic experience （深遠な宗教的歓喜に満ちた体験に根差していないというわけではない）. The natural setting undergoes a kind of beatification （美化） here.
Saigyo; Lafleur, William R. Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo (English Edition) (pp.36-37). Wisdom Publications. Kindle 版.
※ 和歌は短いですが、多くの意味を含んでいます。英語に翻訳・解説するとこれだけの文が必要だということで、文化の違いが面白いです。当然、逆（英語→日本語）もそうだと思います。