Hatsusegawa tachikaeritsutsu tazunureba suginoshirushimo konotabiyamimu

English Translation

Hatsuse River—
as its waves turn back and come
so I come again,
and this time, perhaps, shall see
the token of the cedar

Meaning

As the waves of the Hatsuse River turn back and come again, so I have come back to seek it—and this time, perhaps, I shall see the token of the cedar.

Commentary

Section 30: A Life of Pilgrimages

Setting down without order things separated by two or three, or four or five years makes her look like an ascetic forever on the road; but it is not so—these were things years apart.
Around spring she went into retreat at Kurama. The ridgeline was hazed over and everything peaceful, and it was pleasant that people came down from the hills with a few wild yams they had dug. The road out held nothing, the blossom all fallen; but going up again about the tenth month, the mountain country along the way was far finer at that season. The ridge looked like brocade spread open, and the water came boiling down and leapt back like scattered crystal—better than anywhere. Reaching the temple and coming to the monks' quarters, she found maples soaked with the passing rains, beautiful past comparison, and made a poem.
Two years or so later she went into retreat at Ishiyama, where rain fell hard all night. Having heard that rain is a nuisance when one is away from home, she pushed up the shutter and looked out: the dawn moon lay clear to the very floor of the valley, and what she had taken for rain was water running from the roots of the trees. She made a poem on that.
Going once more to Hatsuse, she felt incomparably surer of herself than the first time. People made ready for her here and there along the way, so that she could not press on. In Yamashiro the maples of the Hahaso wood were at their finest. Crossing the Hatsuse River she made another poem, and to think so was itself a comfort.
Coming away after three days of retreat, the party this time was too large to lodge in the little houses on the near side of Narazaka, and a rough hut was thrown up in the open country, so that the people simply sat out in the fields all night. Leggings were spread on the grass and matting laid over them, and the night passed in the flimsiest of arrangements, with the dew settling thick even on their heads. The moon toward dawn was wonderfully clear, lovely beyond anything, and she made one more poem.

The author is known only as the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue. Kurama is the Kuramadera north of the capital, Ishiyama the Ishiyamadera in Ōmi, Hatsuse the Hasedera in Yamato, and the Hahaso wood a poetic place name in Yamashiro. The "token of the cedar" refers to her earlier retreat at Hatsuse, when at dawn she dreamed that something was thrown out to her with the words that it was a cedar granted as a sign from Inari.

At the season when the maples are at their best, crossing the Hatsuse River in Yamato.

On a second pilgrimage to Hatsuse, feeling incomparably surer than on the first, she crossed the Hatsuse River, and that is what drew the poem.

It is a solitary poem, and no reply is recorded. To think so, the prose adds, was itself a great comfort; and after three days of retreat she passes the night in the open country before Narazaka and composes "Yukuenaki tabinosoranimo okurenuwa miyakonitemishi ariakenotsuki."

The first line names the river that runs beside the Hasedera and fixes the place. Tachikaeritsutsu in the second is a pivot on waves turning back and a person coming again, with Hatsusegawa working almost as a preface leading into it; tsutsu is the particle of repeated action, adding "time after time." In the third line ba attaches to the perfective-conditional and gives a settled cause: since I have come to seek it in this way. Sugi no shirushi in the fourth refers to the dream at her earlier retreat, in which something was thrown out to her as a cedar granted as a sign from Inari. In the close tabi is a pivot on "time" and "journey," ya is interrogative, and mu is the auxiliary of conjecture. With nothing but a place name and two pivots the poem holds both the fact of repeated pilgrimage and the hope that this time will be the time, and, as the prose says, it is spoken in a tone that does not doubt the prayer will be answered. Set against the young woman who let the mirror-dream of Section 21 and the Kiyomizu dream of Section 20 pass without a thought, the author here has moved to the side of those who wait for signs on purpose.

Author

Sugawara no Takasue no Musume

Source

Sarashina Nikki

Other