思ひわび

さても命は

あるものを

憂きに堪へぬは

涙なりけり

どういんほうし

おもいわび

さてもいのちは

あるものを

うきにたえぬは

なみだなりけり

The Monk Doin

Feeling hurt,

Even so, my life

Is still left to me,

But wan is the fight

Against my tears. 

Hokusai

Doin Hoshi (1090 - 1183?), personal name Fujiwara no Atsuyori, participated in many poetic contests. He has forty poems in imperial collections.

This poem could have been composed for a particular person or as a set subject in a poetic competition. As Yoshuo Mostow writes in his Pictures of the Heart, some illustrations of this poem have a clearly homoerotic interpretation. But the poem could as well be interpreted as a lament over the sorrow in the world or inspired by an unattainable love.

Hokusai’s drawing shows us a grieving acolyte with an attendant making tea. There is an unknown ancient Chinese poem on a screen in the back. According to Peter Morse in his Hokusai - One Hundred Poets, this poem is the same as the one in his drawings for poem 86 and 89, so it must have had some importance for Hokusai himself.