They say he cries at
night—then simply guard him well,
Tadamori, for
in the age to come he may
yet flourish, and flourish clean
- Meaning
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They say he cries at night—then simply guard him well, Tadamori; in the age to come he may yet flourish, and flourish cleanly.
- Commentary
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Volume Six: The Gion Consort
Having told of Kiyomori's death, the tale turns back to his birth.
One rainy night, as the retired emperor Shirakawa was going to the Gion Consort, something strange appeared near a hall. Its head seemed set with silver needles; in one hand it held something like a mallet and in the other something that shone. That must be the demon people speak of, they whispered to one another, and what it holds must be the mallet of wishes. Tadamori, already known for his courage though still only a low-ranking guard of the north face, was called forward and ordered to deal with it.
Coming close and looking carefully, Tadamori thought it did not seem so formidable—a fox or a badger at most; and if he shot it or cut it down he might regret it. Better to take it alive. He walked straight up and seized it, and at once a voice said: what are you doing? Far from being a demon, it was plainly a man. By lamplight they saw a monk of nearly sixty who served that hall. He had come to light the lamps before the Buddha with oil in a spouted jar and fire in an earthen dish, and when the rain began he had tied straw over his head to keep dry; the firelight on the straw had looked like silver needles.
Good that he was not killed—it was because Tadamori was a thoughtful man that no life was taken; what an admirable fellow. The retired emperor was so pleased that he gave Tadamori the Gion Consort, whom he had loved deeply, as a reward.
She was already with child when she came to Tadamori. If it is a girl, the retired emperor had said, it shall be mine; if a boy, yours. It was a boy. Tadamori waited for a chance to report it, and on a progress to Kumano, at a rest stop called Itokazaka, he came before the retired emperor with wild yam tubers gathered on the road tucked in his sleeve and said: my dear one's child has grown to crawling. The retired emperor understood at once and capped it: then, Tadamori, take him and raise him.
Later, hearing that the boy cried troublesomely at night, he composed this poem. From it the child was named Kiyomori.
Tadamori puns on the name and on tada mori, "simply guard." Kiyoku hides the character kiyo, and sakauru the character mori. Three puns generate the name Taira no Kiyomori out of the poem itself.
In form it is a verse to quiet a crying infant; in substance it is a prophecy that the child will flourish, and flourish cleanly, in an age to come. Through this one poem the tale puts before the reader the claim that Kiyomori was Shirakawa's own son. The verse tells the secret of his birth and confers his name at the same time.
The placing matters. A tale that opened by declaring that the proud do not endure has, in this same volume, burned Kiyomori to death in a fever—and then sets down the poem that named him. The prophecy of clean flourishing came true, and did not end as prophesied. Putting the origin of the name here is itself the tale's judgment.
yonaki……an infant's crying at night.
tadamori……puns on the name and on "simply guard him."
sue no yo……the age to come.
kiyoku……cleanly; hides the character kiyo of Kiyomori.
sakauru……to flourish; hides the character mori.
Gion no Nyōgo……a favorite of the retired emperor Shirakawa, named for where she lived.
hokumen……guards stationed on the north side of a retired emperor's residence.
uchide no kozuchi……a mallet said to produce whatever one wishes.
Itokazaka……a slope in Kii province on the Kumano road.
rakuin……a child born to a man of high rank by a woman other than his wife.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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