Stars on a clear night?
Or fireflies by the river?
Or perhaps instead
The fishing fires that are lit
By the fishers where I dwell?
- Meaning
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Are those many lights the stars of a clear night, or fireflies along the riverbank? Or are they the fishing fires lit by the fishermen in the place where I live?
- Commentary
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87. Even a Boxwood Comb
There was once a man who lived in the village of Ashiya in the province of Settsu (present-day Hyōgo Prefecture), because he had lands there through family connections. The man held no great rank and only loosely served at court, so deputy officers of the Imperial Guards often gathered there. The man's elder brother was also the head of the Guards, and they would wander about the seashore before the man's residence.
One day the elder brother suggested that they go to see the Nunobiki Waterfall high in the mountains, and so they climbed the mountain. The waterfall was unlike ordinary ones: the water slid down a stone surface about twenty jō (roughly sixty meters) in length and five jō (about fifteen meters) in width. Where the water struck protruding rocks along the way, it broke apart and scattered into droplets about the size of mandarins or chestnuts. Those who were present were asked to compose poems on the waterfall.
The road back from the waterfall was long, and by the time they reached the house of Mochiyoshi, the former Director of the Ministry of the Imperial Household who had already passed away, evening had fallen. When they looked toward the house of the man where they would stay, they saw many fishing lights of the fishermen.
The man composed this poem when he saw those lights.
The poem expresses the lights swaying upon the waves of the dark sea by comparing them to fireflies or to the light of stars.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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