As I gazed at it
the moon came down and took up
lodging in my sleeve,
wet through with tears—moon, tell me
the old tales of the palace
- Meaning
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As I gazed, the moon came down and lodged in my sleeve, wet through with tears. Moon, tell me the old tales of the palace.
- Commentary
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Volume Eleven: The Sacred Mirror Enters the Capital
The Taira were destroyed at Dan-no-ura. Thirty-eight men were taken alive, Munemori and his son among them; forty-three women, including the empress, Kenreimon-in's attendants, Dainagon-no-suke, Sochi-no-suke, and Jibukyō-no-tsubone.
On the third of the fourth month Yoshitsune's messenger reported at the cloistered emperor's palace that the Taira had been destroyed on the twenty-fourth of the third month, that the sacred mirror and jewel were safely recovered and would soon reach the capital. Go-Shirakawa, delighted, called the man up to the garden, questioned him about the battle, and gave him a post on the spot. By the fifth he could not wait, and sent a guard down to the west on one of his own horses.
Yoshitsune and the Taira captives pressed on toward the capital and on the fourteenth reached the shore at Akashi in Harima, a place famous for its moon. As the night deepened and the moon rose, the sky seemed almost autumn's. The women, caught by its beauty, could not help looking back on how far they had fallen. When we passed here before, they said, we never thought it would come to this. Everyone was well then, and we brought out flutes and lutes and made an evening of it. Now they are under the waves, or prisoners, and no one can say what is ahead. They wiped their eyes over these memories and wept without letting themselves be heard.
Sochi-no-suke composed two poems there. This is the first.
The moon is reflected in a sleeve wet with tears. Yadorikeri means it had taken lodging there: the moon that belongs to the sky has come down into a small pool of water on a sleeve.
To that moon she speaks, telling it to give her the tales of kumoi—the sky, and the palace. If it has been up above the clouds, it must know what happened at court.
The moon over the capital is the same moon, so it knows the past. And now it is in her sleeve. That the one she addresses has come within reach is what gives the poem its urgency; the address is an imperative, without deference.
In Volume Ten, Yukimori's poem on the moon at Yashima used the same word kumoi. That was the last moon seen from the Taira base. Here a woman who is now a prisoner uses it at Akashi.
nagamureba……as I gaze.
nururu tamoto……a sleeve wet with tears.
yadorikeri……had taken lodging; was reflected.
kumoi……the sky; also the imperial palace.
monogatari se yo……tell me the tale.
Sochi-no-suke……a lady connected with the Dazaifu governor's house.
Akashi no ura……a shore in Harima, famous for moon-viewing.
naishidokoro……the sacred mirror, and the place where it is kept.
shirushi……the sacred jewel.
shinobine……weeping stifled so as not to be heard.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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