Chigusanaru kokoronaraini akinonono hanaminiikuto kimiomirukana

English Translation

By the habit of
a heart that turns to many
flowers, you see me
as one who goes out to view
the flowers of autumn fields

Meaning

It is the habit of a heart that turns to a thousand different flowers that makes you see me as someone off to view the autumn fields in bloom.

Commentary

Section 19: Retreat at Uzumasa; a Letter from the Father

Around the eighth month, on her way to a retreat at Uzumasa by the First Avenue, the author passed two men's carriages drawn up at the roadside, evidently waiting for someone who was to go on with them. As she went by, a man got up like an escort was sent over to say that he saw her going out to view the flowers. Since her companion said it would be graceless not to answer so elegant a sally, she had only an upper verse sent back, and went on her way.
Through the seven days of her retreat her mind was on nothing but her father in the east; she managed, barely, to leave off the idle imaginings her tales had bred in her, and prayed that she might be brought safely together with him again. Surely the Buddha heard so pitiable a prayer.
In winter, on a night after rain had fallen all day, a wind that sweeps the clouds away blew hard, the sky cleared, the moon came out very bright, and the reeds near the eaves were battered by the wind and broke and scattered so pitifully that she made a poem.
A messenger came from the east. Her father wrote that while making the round of the shrines that a governor performs on taking up his post, he had come upon a wide field with water running prettily through it and a stand of trees; thinking what a fine place it was and how sorry he was that he could not show it to her, he asked what it was called, and was told it was the Grove of Longing for a Child. The name went to his heart so painfully that he got down from his horse and sat gazing there for two hours; and he set down a poem. What it was like to read this needs no saying. The author answered with a poem of her own.

The author is known only as the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue. Her father was appointed governor of Hitachi in Chōgen 5 (1032) and wrote to her from his province. Of the owner of the carriage and his messenger the text gives neither name nor station. Uzumasa is the Kōryūji in the capital, a well-known place of retreat. The shrine circuit is the round of the province's shrines that a governor makes on first taking office.

Around the eighth month, on the road to the retreat at Uzumasa, travelling west along the First Avenue.

Two men's carriages stood at the roadside waiting for someone. As she passed, a man got up like an escort was sent over to say, in a lower verse, that he saw her going out to view the flowers; and since her companion said it would be graceless not to answer, she had an upper verse sent back.

She had only the upper verse delivered and went on. Nothing further of the exchange is recorded.

This is a linked pair: the owner of the carriage sent the lower verse by way of the man who looked like an escort, and the author's side capped it with the upper. In such a pair the long verse of five, seven and five usually comes first and the short verse of seven and seven follows; here the short verse was sent first and the long verse added afterwards, reversing the order. Chigusa in the upper verse is the many flowering plants of an autumn field, and their number stands for the man's roving fancy. Kokoro narai is the habit of a mind, with the implication that one judges others by oneself. Aki no no no in the third line reaches down to hanami in the lower verse and ties the two halves together. The kana that ends the lower verse is exclamatory. His pleasantry, taking a carriage bound for a temple for one bound for the flowers, is turned back on him—it is your own habit of mind that makes it look so—without a single word of reproach. Directly afterwards the author records that during the seven days of the retreat she left off her tale-bred fancies and prayed only for her father's safety, and the wit of the exchange and the urgency of the retreat are set side by side.

Source

Sarashina Nikki

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