Trouble at the Gate

A wrong has been done and a dispute grows out of it, while other troubles pile on at the same time. The third line turns to the household and warns of harm coming in through the gate. By the last line disaster is already present, and the speaker tells the person to stop sighing.

Every line of this verse concerns fault, dispute or harm, and none of them opens onto relief. The book prints Kyo, Bad fortune, and the words match that grade closely.

In modern terms, the picture is one mistake that draws a quarrel and then sets off several other problems in the same season. It raises a question about how a single error spreads, and about how much of a person's energy goes into lamenting it. If an actual dispute or lawsuit is on your mind, a lawyer can speak to it, and this verse cannot say how it would end.