At a reading of the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra to draw closer to the Buddha, held at the Shirakawa estate.
けふよりは露のいのちもおしからず蓮にうかぶ玉とちぎれば
| keFu yori Fa tuyu no inoti mo osikarazu Fatisu ni ukabu tama to tigireba |
From this day on My dewdrop life I’ll not regret: for Floating on the lotus is A jewel, linked to me now… |
Is the similarity between おしからず (I shall not regret) and 白川・しらかわ (the Shirakawa estate) an intentional part of the poem’s effect?
My answer to this one would be ‘no’, if only for the reason that the headnote was probably added afterwards as an aide memoire about the occasion of its composition, rather than being contemporaneous with it.