Since she waits for him
Who comes but once every year,
The lord she awaits—
I think there will surely be
No one there to grant me lodge.
- Meaning
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Since the weaving maiden waits for the one who comes only once a year, I think there will probably be no one who will lend me lodging.
- Commentary
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82. The Heart in Spring
Long ago there was a prince called Prince Koretaka. Beyond Yamazaki there was a detached palace at a place called Minase, and every year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom he would visit that palace. At such times he would always bring with him the man who was then the head of the Right Horse Bureau.
They did not devote themselves much to falconry but spent their time drinking wine and delighting in composing poems. At a residence by the Yodo River at Katano they sat beneath a splendid cherry tree, and people of many different ranks among the attendants composed poems.
After leaving those cherry blossoms and returning toward the Minase palace, night fell. One of the attendants had a servant bring wine from Katano. In search of a suitable place to enjoy the wine, they came to a place called Amanogawa.
The prince told the head of the Right Horse Bureau that he should pour the wine only after composing a poem, and so he composed the poem:
“Hunting all the day,
Now at dusk I shall lodge with
The weaving maiden—
To the banks of Heaven’s River
I indeed have come at last.”
The prince could not produce a reply to this poem. The poem here was composed by Ki no Aritsune, who served among the attendants, offering a reply on behalf of the prince to the poem composed by the head of the Right Horse Bureau.
Like the poem by the head of the Right Horse Bureau, it plays upon the place name “Amanogawa” and the Tanabata legend.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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