Ikanishite ikanishiramashi itsuwario soranitadasuno kaminakariseba

English Translation

How, by what device
how should a falsehood be known
how should it be shown
were there in the sky above
no god of Tadasu to judge

Meaning

How, and by what means, could a lie ever be known, were there no god of Tadasu in the sky to try it?

Commentary

184 When I First Went into Service with Her Majesty

When she first entered the Empress's service the author was ashamed of everything, close to tears, and would come up only at night, keeping herself hidden behind a curtain of state. The Empress would bring out pictures to show her, make her put out her hand, and talk to her, and by degrees she grew used to it. One night the Empress asked her ladies whether they loved her. The author had barely said that of course she did when someone sneezed loudly. How dreadful, said the Empress — so it was a lie; very well, then — and withdrew into the inner room. The author thought it was nothing of the kind and wondered who had done so spiteful a thing, but being new to service she could not bring herself to explain, and the night passed.

The Empress is Teishi, consort of Emperor Ichijō. The god of Tadasu is the deity of the Tadasu grove at the Kamo Mioya shrine in the capital, invoked in poetry as the god who tries the truth of things.

The time is shortly after she entered service; the place is the Empress's residence.

The immediate occasion is the sneeze being taken as proof of a lie: a sneeze that fell on someone's words was held at the time to mark those words as false. The next morning this poem arrived from the Empress, written on pale green tissue paper.

Reading it, the author was mortified that the Empress still doubted her, could think of nothing else, and felt only resentment toward whoever had sneezed. She replied with "Ususakosa sorenimoyoranu hanayueni ukiminohodoo miruzowabishiki," asking that at least this much be conveyed on her behalf.

The first two lines repeat the same interrogative, doubling the question of by what means; the auxiliary that ends the second is the consequent of a counterfactual and answers the condition in the last line.

The third line names what is in question, and the fourth carries the poem: the name of the Tadasu grove is also the verb meaning to set right, to establish what is true, so that place name and verb occupy one word. The phrase placing it in the sky can also be heard as meaning idly or without foundation; either way the god is set overhead.

The close states the condition contrary to fact: were there no such god. The implication runs the other way — because there is such a god, falsehood is found out — and the sneeze is thereby accepted as the god's own sign. Not one word of reproach is used; by bringing in the god, judgement is taken out of human hands altogether, which leaves the recipient no opening to argue. How that stance is met is the interest of the reply, "Ususakosa sorenimoyoranu hanayueni ukiminohodoo miruzowabishiki."

Author

Empress Teishi

Source

Makura no Soshi

Other