Having no footing
by which to climb, I gather
acorns on the ground
beneath the tree, and with them
I make my way through this world
- Meaning
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Having no means by which to climb, I gather acorns on the ground beneath the tree, and with them make my way through the world.
- Commentary
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Volume Four: The Nue
Admitted to the palace by the previous poem, Yorimasa remained at the junior fourth rank, lower grade, for some time; still setting his heart on the third rank, he composed this. In the end he was granted it, took vows, and was known as the lay monk Yorimasa of the Third Rank. He was seventy-five that year.
The tale then gives what it calls the great exploit of his life, the killing of the nue. In the Nimpyō era, during the reign of Emperor Konoe, the sovereign was seized with terror night after night. Eminent monks performed the highest rites without effect. The affliction came about the hour of the ox: a bank of black cloud would rise from the direction of the Higashi-Sanjō grove and cover the palace roof, and the terror always followed. Following precedent, a warrior was ordered to stand guard, and Yorimasa was chosen from among the Minamoto and Taira. In the darkness he first loosed a large humming arrow upward, and by the cry of the startled creature aimed a second and brought it down. Its head was a monkey's, its body a badger's, its tail a snake, its limbs a tiger's, and its cry like the nue bird's. When a robe was bestowed on him, a noble gave the opening lines of a linked verse and Yorimasa capped them; the same happened again years later at a second such exploit.
Unmatched with the bow, and excellent in the way of poetry besides—so both sovereign and subjects felt. Yet the tale closes the chapter coldly: that such a man should raise a pointless rebellion, lose the prince, and destroy himself and his descendants is a wretched thing.
Shii puns on the acorn of the chinquapin and on shii, the fourth rank. A rustic scene of gathering nuts under a tree is laid over a man left standing at the junior fourth.
Noboru works both ways too: climbing a tree and rising in rank. Unable to climb, he must gather what falls; unable to rise, he must remain a fourth-rank man. Scene and petition coincide exactly.
Where the earlier poem was restrained, this one leans toward play. But it says the same thing, and only one thing: I cannot rise. Both are indirect and both are perfectly clear, and both succeeded.
After these two poems Volume Four sets the nue story to complete the portrait, and then pushes it all away: rebellion cost him everything. A man drawn as excelling in both arms and poetry becomes the measure by which the weight of the ruin is taken.
noborubeki……by which to climb; applying to trees and to rank alike.
tayori……a means, a foothold.
ki no moto……beneath the tree.
shii……the acorn of the chinquapin; puns on the fourth rank.
yo wo wataru……to make one's way through life.
shōge shii……junior fourth rank, lower grade.
sanmi……the junior third rank, the level of a court noble.
Genzanmi Nyūdō……Yorimasa's style after his promotion and taking of vows.
nue……an old name for the white's thrush; here the name of the creature.
ōkabura……a large humming arrow.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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