What am I to do?
The capital's spring is dear,
and yet in the east,
the land I know, the flowers
may be falling even now
- Meaning
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What am I to do? The spring of the capital is dear to me, and yet in the east, the country I know, the blossoms may already be falling.
- Commentary
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Volume Ten: Down the Sea Road
Pleased with Jijū's poem, Shigehira asked Kagetoki who she was—she seemed a woman of feeling.
Kagetoki answered respectfully: I had thought you knew. She is the daughter of the Kumano woman who keeps this station, called Jijū. When Lord Munemori was governor of this province he sent for her and was deeply attached to her, and took her to the capital. His fondness was such that he would not release her; and worrying about her old mother left behind at home, she composed this poem one year at the height of the blossom.
Munemori was moved by it and gave her leave, and she was able to go home. Since then, they say, she has been called the finest on the sea road.
The poem balances the spring of the capital against the flowers of the east. Both are blossoms; one belongs to where she is, the other to where she comes from.
Nareshi means grown accustomed. Though she lives in favor in the capital, it is the east she is used to. To the man who keeps her, she says that his place is not her place.
But nothing is said of her mother, and nothing of wanting to go. She only asks whether the blossoms have fallen. Her mother is carried entirely inside the flowers. That is what moved Munemori.
Not a petition and not a plea, but a request for leave in the guise of concern for the blossoms at home. It is the method of Yorimasa's poem in Volume Four, which won him the third rank. Asking by way of a poem works regardless of rank.
ikani sen……what am I to do?
miyako no haru……the spring blossom of the capital.
oshikeredo……though it is dear.
nareshi……grown used to, familiar.
Azuma……the eastern provinces; here Tōtōmi.
hana ya chiruran……are the blossoms falling?
itoma……leave; release from service.
Munemori……Taira no Munemori, then governor of the province.
kaidō ichi……the finest along the sea road.
chōja……the woman who ran a post station.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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