15「左右をば切るも払うも打ち捨てて人の心は直ぐに馳せ行け。」- 植芝盛平
Original Waka
左右をば
植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)
切るも払うも
打ち捨てて
人の心は
直ぐに馳せ行け
Translation
“As for left and right, whether to cut or to sweep, strike and cast them all aside—let this human heart immediately go on straight ahead.” – Morihei Ueshiba
Waka Translation
Left, right, as for these:
cutting, sweeping, either/or,
strike, cast them away—
human’s own heart-mind, on this:
at once straight on, gallop, go!
Morihei Ueshiba
歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）1
左右をば（さゆうをば）
切るも祓ふも（きるもはらうも）
打ち捨てて（うちすてて）
人の心は（ひとのこころは）
直ぐに馳せ行け（すぐにはせゆけ）
植芝盛平
Bungo Romanization1
sayū o‑ba
kiru mo harau mo
uchi‑sutete
hito no kokoro wa
sugu ni hase yuke
Ueshiba Morihei
1 I keep Ueshiba’s lexis but write 祓ふ to surface the religious sense of harau (“purify, exorcise”) alongside “to sweep / parry” (払う), enabling a kakekotoba (pivot) that is very standard in waka poetics (cf. Hirano, 2017; Waller, 2020).
Translation, Notes, Commentary, and Research by Latex G. N. R. Space-Coyote
Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–015: Send forth this human heart (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/giin
左（さ; sa）— left.
右（ゆう; yū）— right.
をば （o‑ba）— classical emphatic object marker (を + は → をば), used to “take up” the object with focus (DIGITALIO, n.d.; Vovin, 2003).
左右をば（さゆうをば; sayū o‑ba）— “(as for) left and right” → invokes bilateral sword actions / directions; archaic -ba adds emphasis to the object “left and right.” In budō language this evokes both literal lateral techniques and the broader habit of dividing the world into binaries (left/right, this/that). Ueshiba often urges moving beyond dualistic reaction.
をば（o‑ba）— classical emphatic object‑topic (を + は → ば), common in bungo and older dialect strata; its use here unmistakably marks a classical style.
切（き; ki）— cut.
払（はら; hara）— clear.
払ふ / 祓ふ（はらう; harau）— shows historical kana / orthography (‑ふ), standard bungo spelling for modern ‑う verbs. Authoritative grammars detail such morphology and the ren’yōkei + て linkage exploited in line 3. 祓ふ surfaces a second meaning: harai / harae purification / exorcism in Shintō ritual (Kokugakuin n.d.; Hardacre, 2017); establishes a 掛詞 (kakekotoba) between 払う (to sweep away, deflect) and 祓う (to purify, exorcise).
切るも払ふも（きるもはらうも; kiru mo harau mo）— “whether cutting or sweeping (aside)” → enumerates technical motions (kiru, harau) to be treated as equivalent. Classic sword actions (cut, parry/clear). Grouped with “left and right,” they stand for getting stuck in choosing techniques or angles instead of aligning with principle.
打（う; u）— hit, strike, slap; beat up; act of beating up; changes noun to verb.
捨（す[て]; su[te]）— discard [throw away].
打ち捨てて（うちすてて; uchi-sutete）— “cast (them) away” → ren’yōkei + て links to the command that follows, creating momentum into the shimo‑no‑ku; “throw away utterly.” A deliberate renunciation of technique‑fixation in favor of higher intent; clause chaining via …て into an imperative in the shimo‑no‑ku is a textbook bungo move (ren’yōkei conjunctive leading to a main finite / imperative clause). Comprehensive linguistic overviews of classical Japanese cover these patterns; this exhibits a 三句切れ (cut after line 3), a normative placement in waka after Kokinshū (Asaoka, 2007; 2008).
人の心は（ひとのこころは; hito no kokoro）— “the human heart‑mind” (kokoro) → shifts from technique to interiority. kokoro is the integrated “heart‑mind,” not just emotion or intellect. Translating it as “heart‑mind” reflects its holistic sense in Japanese thought.
直ぐに（すぐに; sugu ni）— “immediately / straight”; sugu carries both temporal and moral-spatial nuance: not only “at once,” but “directly, straight and true”; this resonates with Zen/budō ideals of 直心 (chokushin, “straight heart”).
人の心は直ぐに（ひとのこころはすぐに; hito no kokoro sugu ni）— “let the person’s heart / mind, straightaway…” 直ぐ (“straight/right away”) can echo straight/rectitude, subtly reinforcing the poem’s vector (“straightness” of mind).
馳（はせ; hase）— speed, gallop, spread afar, long for, chase; a gallop is the fastest a horse can go, with all hooves off the ground in each stride (cf. Horan et al., 2010; Muybridge, 1878).
行（ゆ; yu）— [to] go; kakekatoba pivot words are warm/hot water, bathwater, hot spring, medicinal bath, medicinal decoction, bilgewater, molten metal for casting / founding, urine, a bow, or holy / pure / sacred (Wikimedia Foundation, 2025).
行け（ゆけ; yuke）— reflects the classical coexistence of yuku (classical bungo 文語) / iku (more modern kōgo 口語) “to go”; “yuke” is idiomatic in literary diction and fits the imperative cadence.
馳せ行け（はせゆけ; hase yuke）— imperative “hasten forth,” “dash straight on”; calls for decisive, unhesitating movement of kokoro; classical imperative nuance: “hasten and go!” (objective / intentive mind that “rushes forth”); resonant with Ueshiba’s spiritualized budō, where intention / ki proceeds first (cf. Stein, 2024; Greenhalgh, 2003).
直ぐに馳せ行け（すぐにはせゆけ; sugu ni hase yuke）— “let it hurry straight ahead!” → imperative yuke marks an ethical / aesthetic directive: put kokoro straight and swift.
Kami-no-ku and shimo-no-ku. Lexically, the move from concrete technique (切る／払ふ) to kokoro and a final imperative is consistent with “ethical turn” closures found in didactic waka and dōka. Standard histories of waka explain such rhetorical turns and closures.
Abandon technique-by-technique thinking. Ueshiba is telling the practitioner to abandon dualistic, technique‑by‑technique thinking (e.g., left vs. right, cut vs. parry) and instead send the kokoro forward in a straight, immediate, and principled line. This mirrors budō and Shintō inflections in which right action arises from alignment of heart‑mind with a larger order, not from debating options in the moment.
Flow through. Employs a third‑phrase flow‑through: …打ち捨てて bridges across the mid‑poem hinge into the shimo‑no‑ku—an instance of waka kugire organization in which semantic energy shifts between phrase 3→4.
Budo ethics & form transcendence. Ueshiba repeatedly subordinates external technique to an inner-aligned kokoro and cosmology; his dōka often pivot from technical lexicon to spiritual injunction, resonating with prewar and postwar budō discourses that moralize technique. Histories of martial culture situate this “form → principle (kokoro)” trajectory within broader samurai/budō ideologies.
Modern reception. Accounts of “how war and religion shaped modern Aikido” emphasize that Ueshiba reframed combative technique into a soteriological path—precisely the turn in this poem from 左右…切るも払ふも to 心…馳せ行け.
Yoin (余韻). The imperative 馳せ行け leaves a lingering after‑echo of motion and rectitude—an “after‑tone” or resonance that Japanese poetics values (cf. Shirane, 2005).
Shugyokai Note. This is the way beyond the Trolly Problem’s achilles heel of the Halting Problem, indeed!
解説; Commentary
このページの第15首は、原文「左右をば切るも払うも打ち捨てて人の心は直ぐに馳せ行け」を掲げて、「人の心（hito no kokoro）」を「感情でも知性でも単独ではない統合されたハート＝マインド」として明確に位置づける（批判的口語訳：「左右に斬る・払うといった手先の応酬は捨てて、「人の心」を一直線に、ただちに走らせよ」）。語の芯を押さえると、打ち捨てるは「思い切って捨てる・顧みない」の意、直ぐ／直ぐには「曲がらず（一直線）・ただちに」、馳せるは「速く走る／思いを至らせる」だから、手立て（左右の斬り払い）を見切って「心（統合的心身）」を一直線に、ためらわず送り出すという命が立ち上がる。
この読解を、六つのプライマーの糸で束ね直すと構図が見える。プライマーの第一原理が示した〈武＝宇宙原理〉を背骨に、プライマーの第二原理の〈人との合気〉を「心の運用」へ落とし、プライマーの第三原理の〈心魂一如〉でブレのない芯を作る。プライマーの第四原理の〈和合美化〉は“どの方向に心を走らせるか”のテロスを与え、プライマーの第五原理の〈体＝道場、心＝修業者／修行者〉で日常の最小単位まで徹底し、プライマーの第六原理の〈「至愛」の源に順う〉が最上位の拠り所になる。その総決算として第15首は、左右（テクニックの分岐）に心を迷わせるな／ただちに一直線に「心（heart‑mind）」を前へ送れと、運用のベクトルを一本に収斂させる。
さらに直前三首の運びを糸足しすると、第12首の「天地の息にまかせつつ」が「直ぐに」の拍（リズム）を与え、第13首の「清眼」が一直線の見極めを磨き、第14首の「前ぞ見えたり」が眼前の課題に心を出す姿勢を固めた。だから第15首は、息（第12首）×眼（第13首）×眼前（第14首）の整えを前提に、左右の手筋（cut／parry）をいったん置き、「心そのもの」を先に送る——技より先に関係と意志（heart‑mind）を通すという合気の作法を、短句で叩き込む章だと言える。
口語要約のひとこと
「左右への斬りや払いは捨てて、人の心はまっすぐに駆けて行け。」
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Appendix I: Change Modification Log
28 DEC 25 - Revised translation for kami-no-ku to shimo-no-ku aligned sequence fold; added links to commentary; added details on 馳 for kinesthetics.
21 DEC 25 - Phase V styling applied to waka.
07 DEC 25 - Corrected English quotes to Japanese quotes in Japanese commentary; back propagated English "Primer" to Japanese "プライマー" updates for Japanese readability.
26 OCT 25 - Phase IV completion; added commentary.
09 OCT 25 - Phase III completion.
14 APR 20 - Initial notes transferred.