We part before I
have had my fill of you—so
what remains of you
I shall wrap and keep it here,
a token for days to come
- Meaning
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We part before I have had my fill of you; so what remains of you I shall wrap up and keep here, a token for the days to come.
- Commentary
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Volume Seven: Tsunemasa Leaves the Capital
Tsunemasa had served as a boy in the household of the Ninna-ji prince-abbot and had been much loved there. Leaving the capital, he went to that residence to take his leave.
He left five or six retainers at the gate, took off his armor and came before the abbot in ordinary dress. Our house is leaving the capital, he said; there is no end to what I feel about it, and I have come this far. The abbot was deeply moved and wept, and the monks of the house grieved at the parting too.
Tsunemasa then returned the lute called Seizan, which he had been given as a child and had treasured ever since. It would be too great a loss to sink it beneath the waves of the western sea, he said; if the world should ever grow quiet again, I should wish to receive it once more.
The abbot, feeling the parting still more, called for an inkstone, wrote a poem, and gave it to him. This is that poem.
Akazu shite means without having had enough, with nothing of the parting exhausted.
Grammatically what he wraps and keeps is "what remains" of Tsunemasa; in fact what is wrapped and kept is the lute Tsunemasa gave back. A formless remainder is transferred into a thing that has a form. That Seizan stays in the residence is Tsunemasa staying.
The four poems that begin here make up the chapter. Verses are exchanged over a returned lute, and the parting is completed by the exchanging of them. He takes off his armor, gives back the instrument, composes, and rides to the war. The chapter sets out carefully what procedure the parting of a Taira nobleman followed.
The structure repeats that of the chapter just before, where Tadanori entrusted his poems to Shunzei. A warrior leaving hands over something that is not a weapon. Tadanori left poems; Tsunemasa left a lute.
akazu shite……without having had enough.
nagori……what remains in the heart after a parting.
nochi no katami……a keepsake for later days.
tsutsumite zo oku……I wrap it and keep it.
Ninna-ji no Omuro……Prince-Abbot Shukaku, son of the cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa.
Seizan……a famous lute brought from China.
hitatare……the ordinary dress of a warrior.
suzuri……an inkstone, called for in order to write a poem.
Kōgōgū no suke……assistant master of the empress's household.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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