Where men pass on foot,
Crossing yet without wet hems,
Such a bond we share—
Still, the gate of Ausaka
Once again I shall cross.
- Meaning
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Just as the inlet may be crossed on foot without even wetting one’s hem, so the bond between us is shallow. Yet I will cross the barrier of Ausaka again when I return to the capital, and then we may meet once more.
- Commentary
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69. Did You Come?
A certain man was sent to Ise as an official for the hunt, a post responsible for capturing birds and animals for court banquets and also for inspecting the administration of the provinces. The parent of the Saigū of the Ise Shrine—a princess who served the shrine and remained unmarried—said to her, "Attend to him with greater care than the usual officials." Following this instruction, the Saigū treated him with great courtesy.
On the second night after the man arrived, he insisted that he wished to meet the Saigū. Yet because of their respective positions—an imperial princess and a court official—and because there were many eyes about, they could not easily meet. Their sleeping quarters, however, were not far apart. Around midnight, when the attendants had fallen asleep, she went to the place where the man was staying. Overjoyed, he led her to his own chamber, and they remained together until about three in the morning. Before they could exchange words of intimacy, however, the woman departed.
On the following day the woman composed a poem saying that she could not tell whether what had happened the previous night was dream or reality, and the man replied that they should determine it clearly that very night. The man went out hunting, yet he could not concentrate, thinking only of meeting her again that evening. Contrary to his wish to see her quickly, the governor of Ise—who also oversaw the Saigū’s residence—held a banquet, and the two could not meet at all. By dawn the man would have to depart for Owari Province, and so both were filled with sorrow.
Near daybreak the woman wrote only the upper verse of this poem on the saucer of a cup and offered it to him. The man received it and completed the lower verse.
In the opening lines the shallowness of the inlet is compared to the shallowness of their bond: the woman suggests that their meeting was fleeting and cannot be helped, and she resigns herself to parting. The man too accepts their separation for the moment, yet he leaves his feelings behind by saying that when he returns to the capital he will cross the barrier again and meet her once more.
"The barrier of Ausaka" is a place name referring to the checkpoint on Mount Ausaka, and it also functions as a pivot word suggesting "to meet again."
A note identifies the Saigū in this episode as Princess Yasuko, daughter of Emperor Montoku and the half-sister of Prince Koretaka.
One theory about the origin of the title of the :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0} is that it came to be called "The Tale of Ise" from the manuscript tradition beginning with the Koshikibu no Naishi text in which this episode first appears; another theory holds that this episode forms the central core of the tale.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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