In this fleeting world,
Would there were no parting
None can turn aside—
For the sake of children who
Pray their parents live a thousand years.
- Meaning
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If only in this world there were no partings that cannot be avoided. For the sake of children, who pray that their parents may live even a thousand years.
- Commentary
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84. The Unavoidable Parting
Long ago there was a man. Though his rank was low, his mother was of the imperial family. She lived at Nagaoka, the former capital near Kyoto. The man served at court in the capital, and so he could not often go to visit his mother. As he was her only child, she cherished him greatly. Around the twelfth month a letter arrived from his mother saying that the matter was urgent. The man was startled and read the letter.
The poem was composed by the man through tears in response to the poem written in the letter:
“Now that I am old,
They say there is a parting
None can turn aside—
All the more I long to see
You, my dear and cherished one.”
At first the urgent letter from his mother caused him anxiety about what might have happened, but when he read the poem saying that she wished to see him, he felt relief. At the same time, the poem expresses the feelings of the man as he sensed the thoughts of his mother, whose death was near.
This poem is included in the Kokinshū as a poem by Ariwara no Narihira. In The Tales of Ise, Narihira is often portrayed as a refined lover of many affairs, but he is also depicted as a man of deep feeling who maintained close friendships with Ki no Aritsune and Prince Koretaka and who shows tenderness toward his mother in this episode.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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