Seeing you, I think
You must be an ama of the sea—
So at the sight of you
I find myself hoping still
You will bid me taste the weed.
- Meaning
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Seeing you, I take you for one who has grown weary of the world and become a nun. Merely at the sight of you, I find myself hoping that you will give me a sign with your eyes.
- Commentary
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104. Weary of the World
There was a woman who had become a nun without any particular reason. Having taken on the plain appearance of one who has renounced the world, she no longer stood out. Yet perhaps drawn by curiosity about something people went to see, she went out to watch the Kamo Festival.
The poem was composed for her by a man.
The nun had once served as the Saiō of Ise. When the man recited his poem to the carriage in which she had come to see the festival, she stopped watching and returned home.
This poem uses many layered puns.
“Umi” means both weariness of the world and the sea; “ama” means both a nun and a sea-diver; “miru kara ni” means both “merely at the sight” and refers to seaweed; and “mekuwaseyo” can mean both “give a sign with your eyes” and “let me taste the seaweed.”
Taking these puns together, the poem means: merely seeing that you have grown weary of the world and become a nun, I find myself hoping that you will give me a sign with your eyes.
Since she had served as the Saiō of Ise, she was of imperial lineage. While the poem gently criticizes the impropriety of such a person openly attending a public festival, it also expresses sympathy for her circumstances, suggesting that if she would quietly give him a sign away from the public eye, he might at least become someone with whom she could speak.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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