Izukonimo otorajimonoo wagayadono yooakihatsuru keshikibakariwa

English Translation

To nowhere at all
would it yield, and yet, and yet—
here at my own house
this autumn that ends, this sight
of which I shall never tire

Meaning

Surely it yields to nowhere—this garden of mine, in the sight of autumn coming to its end, a sight I never tire of.

Commentary

Section 11: The Garden of Our House, the Dream of the Rokkakudō Watercourse

In the days after she obtained the Tale of Genji and gave herself over to reading it, the author began setting down the seasons of her own garden in verse. In the early part of the fifth month, watching the orange blossom near the eaves fall in a drift of white, she composed a poem. Their house, like the foot of Mount Ashigara she had crossed on the way to the capital where the trees grew dark and thick, was a place overgrown with timber, so that the maples of the tenth month were finer there than on any of the surrounding hills, as though brocade had been drawn across the grounds. When a visitor from outside remarked that he had just passed a place on the road where the maples were very beautiful, she answered on the instant with another poem.
Thinking of tales all day long and holding them in mind through every waking hour of the night, she dreamed that someone came and told her that a watercourse was being made at the Rokkakudō for the Ippon no Miya, daughter of the Kōtaigōgū. When she asked what that might mean, the answer was that she should put her faith in Amaterasu Ōmikami. She told no one of the dream and let it pass without a thought, which was a poor thing indeed. And each spring, looking out toward that princess's residence, she composed a further poem.

The author is known only as the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue. The Kōtaigōgū is Kenshi, third daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, who became empress to Emperor Sanjō and was styled Kōtaigōgū from the tenth month of Kannin 2 (1018) after his death. The Ippon no Miya was Sanjō's third daughter, born to Kenshi. The Rokkakudō is the Chōhōji in the capital, so called because its main hall is hexagonal.

Around the tenth month, when the maples were at their height, at the house in the capital.

A visitor from outside remarked that he had just come along a road where the maples were very beautiful, and the poem came from the author on the instant.

No reply is recorded. Immediately afterwards, in a dream sent to a girl who thought of nothing but tales, a figure tells her to put her faith in Amaterasu Ōmikami, and she lets the warning pass without a thought.

Izuko ni mo means "compared with anywhere at all." In the second line the auxiliary ji gives a negative conjecture: it will surely not fall short. Mono o is a conjunctive particle of concession and feeling, breaking off with an unspoken "and yet." What follows is inverted, so that keshiki bakari wa in the closing line is the subject of otoraji. The fourth line turns on a pivot word: aki hatsuru is both the autumn coming to its end and the eye growing tired of a thing, and yo, "the world," joins with the second sense to let a faint weariness with life sound beneath. It is a retort thrown back at a guest who had praised someone else's maples, and the wild garden that on her arrival had not even looked like part of the city has become something to be proud of. Where "Tokinarazu furuyukikatozo nagamemashi hanatachibanano kaorazariseba" sings the white of summer, this one sings the brocade of autumn, and the two together set the seasons of the garden side by side.

Author

Sugawara no Takasue no Musume

Source

Sarashina Nikki

Other