Think of me: your face
rises before me each time
the waves rise and come
breaking in against the shore,
and my sleeves are wet again
- Meaning
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Think of me: each time the waves rise and come breaking in, your face rises before me, and my sleeves are wet again.
- Commentary
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Volume Four: The Return
Having read the shrine maiden's letter, the Retired Emperor said it was gracefully done and that an answer must be made, and had an inkstone brought at once. This is the reply the Major Counselor Kunitsuna wrote.
The party then reached the harbor at Kojima in Bizen. On the fifth of the month the sky was clear, the wind still, and the sea calm, so the imperial barge and all the other boats put out, and by the hour of the cock they reached the Yamada shore in Harima. From there he went by palanquin into Fukuhara. On the sixth his attendants were eager to reach the capital even a day sooner, but he stayed on and looked about Fukuhara. On the seventh he left, and on the eighth he entered the capital. Nobles and courtiers came out as far as Kusatsu in Toba to meet him; but on this return he did not go to the Toba mansion, and went straight to Kiyomori's residence at Nishi-Hachijō. He never called on his imprisoned father.
The tatsu of "the waves rise" picks up the tachi of the poem it answers. The handing back and forth of a word, which is the basis of poetic exchange, is done properly here.
She says she cannot rise and dance; he answers that the waves rise again and again. The same sound is divided between the one who cannot move and the water that never stops. That is where the wit of the reply lies.
A poem beginning "think of me" opens exactly as Yasuyori's stupa verse does in Volume Two. There the call went out to whoever might find it; here the face of the addressee is already before him. The same imperative sounds altogether different depending on where it is set.
And directly after this exchange, which began as a joke in company, comes the note that he went to Nishi-Hachijō without calling at Toba. At the close of a peaceable travel account, the coming upheaval is quietly set in place.
omoiyare……consider it; imagine it.
omokage……a face remembered, an image.
tatsu nami……rising waves; picking up tachi from the previous poem.
yosekuru……to come breaking in.
tamoto……a sleeve.
suzuri……an inkstone; handing one over was a way of calling for a reply.
tori no koku……about six in the evening.
Nishi-Hachijō……Kiyomori's residence in the capital.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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