The keeper of the
great inner mountain, whom no
one knows, only sees
the moon from where he stands, hid
away among the branches
- Meaning
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The keeper of the great inner mountain, whom no one knows, only looks at the moon from where he stands hidden among the trees.
- Commentary
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Volume Four: The Nue
With both the prince and Yorimasa gone, the tale turns back to look over Yorimasa's life.
He was five generations from Yorimitsu, Governor of Settsu; grandson of Yoritsuna, Governor of Mikawa; son of Nakamasa, Head of the Bureau of Military Storehouses. At Hōgen he rode in the front rank on the winning side and received little for it; at the Heiji disturbance he abandoned his own kinsmen to serve, and his reward was slight. He served long as guardian of the palace and was never admitted to the courtiers' hall. Only when he had grown old did he compose a poem of complaint, and by it was at last granted admission. This is that poem.
Ōuchiyama names the imperial palace and is also simply a mountain. The man who guards that mountain—the office he actually held—he calls its keeper. A post is turned directly into a poetic word.
The moon is the splendor of the court, and the sovereign himself. To watch the moon from among the trees is to be barred from the hall and left looking up from cover. Not one word of grievance is spoken; it is put as the daily round of a mountain keeper.
It is a petition that refuses the form of a petition, and that restraint is what was rewarded: he was admitted. A poem moved an appointment. Read together with the scene in Volume One where Gōun quoted a poem of Yorimasa's and turned back several thousand armed monks, it shows plainly that Yorimasa belonged to a world in which poems carried.
And he was destroyed by Munemori, to whom they did not. Volume Four gives the beginning of that ruin in the poem about a horse, and then, in this verse, turns back to light up the whole life behind it.
Ōuchiyama……the imperial palace; also a mountain northwest of the capital.
yamamori……the keeper of a mountain, punning on his post as guardian of the palace.
kogakurete……hidden among the trees.
nomi……only, merely.
jukkai……a statement of one's feelings; particularly a poem complaining of neglect.
shōden……permission to enter the courtiers' hall of the Seiryōden.
Ōuchi shugo……the office of guarding the imperial palace.
Hyōgo no kami……head of the Bureau of Military Storehouses.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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