Ryoma Sakamoto · Tosa
Original
世の人は
Ryoma Sakamoto's tanka, "世の人はわれをなにともゆはばいへ". Read the original Japanese, translation, meaning, and historical background. This poem contains the solitude of someone who has stepped outside public judgment.
Person
A Tosa-born reformer who formed the Kaientai and helped open the path toward restoration. Moving beyond domain and class, he looked toward the sea and the wider world. His freedom was light-footed, but it also carried the loneliness of walking outside ordinary society.
Know This Person
Translation
Let people say whatever they wish about me. I alone know the meaning of what I am trying to do.
Poetic Shape Tanka compresses feeling into five short movements, traditionally heard as a 5-7-5-7-7 rhythm. Its force is in the turn from image to emotion, and in what the poem leaves unsaid.
Reading
This poem contains the solitude of someone who has stepped outside public judgment. Let people say what they wish; only I know the meaning of what I am doing. Ryoma's freedom was not simple cheerfulness. To move beyond domain, status, and convention, he had to accept long periods of being misunderstood by almost everyone around him.
Background
Sakamoto Ryoma left the Tosa domain, formed the Kaientai, and acted within the currents that led toward the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance and the return of political authority to the emperor. His view reached beyond the logic of any single domain and looked toward the sea and the wider world. That made his actions difficult for many contemporaries to understand. The poem resonates strongly with an image of Ryoma believing in his role outside reputation and misunderstanding.
Source / Transmission Wording varies by source; a related text appears in materials such as Cultural Heritage Online, "Eiso 2: Waka."
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