Momoshiki no tamoto no kazu wa mishikadomo wakite omoi no iro zo koishiki

English Translation

Many were the sleeves
I saw at the great palace
and yet one alone
the colour of fire, the colour
of longing, is dear to me

Meaning

Many were the sleeves I saw, and yet one alone — the colour of fire, the colour of longing — is dear to me.

Commentary

103 The River of Heaven

At the height of his career as a lover, Heichū went to the market, for in those days people of rank went to the market to look for lovers. Women in the empress's service were there, and he pressed his suit ardently. When he wrote to them, they had someone ask which of the several women in the carriage his letter was meant for, and he answered with "Momoshiki no tamoto no kazu wa mishikadomo wakite omoi no iro zo koishiki". She was the daughter of the Governor of Musashi, and had been wearing a robe of deep scarlet silk. She answered, and they became lovers. But after their one night together no word came from him, that morning or that evening; five and six days passed, and she wept and would not eat, and at last cut off her long hair with her own hands and became a nun. On his side, his superior had carried him off the very next morning, then came attendance on the retired emperor at the Ōi river, and then a closed direction that obliged him to lodge elsewhere. He was on the point of writing at last when a servant of her house arrived with a letter wrapping a lock of cut hair, on which was written "Ama no kawa sora naru mono to kikishikado waga me no mae no namida narikeri". Everything went dark before him; he answered with "Yo o waburu namida nagarete hayaku tomo ama no kawa ni wa sa ya wa narubeki" and went to her himself. She had shut herself in the storeroom, and though he begged to hear her voice she did not answer. He made of this, we are told, the most extraordinary thing in the world. That is the whole of the section.
Heichū is Taira no Sadafun, known as a great lover, who also appears in the forty-sixth and sixty-fourth sections. The woman was a daughter of the Governor of Musashi and served the empress. The storeroom was a windowless inner room with a door and a light-opening.
The setting is the market, where, as the prose says, people of rank went to look for lovers.
What prompted the poem was the question of which woman in the carriage his letter was meant for. It is his answer.
It brought a reply, and they became lovers. From here the section moves to his silence after their one night and to her taking the veil. This poem was later included in the Shokugosen-shū.

The word in the first line means the imperial palace, and contains the word for a hundred, so that a great number is heard in it, leading into the sleeves that follow.
Many sleeves were seen: several women in a carriage, counted by their sleeves.
The third line means specifically, singling one out.
The word for longing contains the word for fire, which yields the colour of fire — scarlet — and the prose tells us she was wearing deep scarlet. Asked which woman he means, he names no one and points only to a colour. Making both senses work at once is the whole art of it.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other