Satotōmi amariokunaru yamajiniwa hanaminitotemo hitokozarikeri

English Translation

The village so far,
and this mountain path so deep
in the hills, that no
one comes here, not even to
look at the flowering trees

Meaning

So far from any village, so deep among the hills—no one comes along this path, not even to look at the blossom.

Commentary

Section 31: Those of the Same Mind

With nothing much going against her, and with even long pilgrimages of this kind giving her something to find lovely or hard along the road and so easing her mind, and with the future looking hopeful and nothing immediately to grieve over, her whole wish was to see her small children brought up as she would have them; and thinking so she found the years slow in passing, and lived on the single hope that her husband might come in for a post like anyone else, which was a sustaining sort of hope.
A woman with whom she had once talked intimately and exchanged poems night and day, and with whom, though it was no longer as it had been, she had gone on corresponding without a break, went down as the wife of the governor of Echizen and then fell entirely silent. The author at last found someone to carry a letter, sent a poem, and received a reply.
Early in the third month she went to a place deep in the Western Hills. Not a soul was to be seen, the haze lay peacefully over everything, and in that forlorn stillness the cherry alone was in full bloom. She made a poem.
At a time when things between her and her husband were troublesome, she was in retreat at Uzumasa when a letter came from a lady she was close to at the princess's household; and as she was writing her reply a bell sounded, and she added a poem before sending it.
On a mild, quiet day at the princess's, three of them of the same mind had sat talking; and the next day, at a loose end and remembering it with longing, she sent a poem to the other two, and each of them replied.
A woman with whom she was of one mind, who had exchanged letters with her in this way and shared with her everything hard and painful and pleasant in the world, went down to Chikuzen; and on a night when the moon was very bright, thinking how on such a night she would have gone to the princess's and, meeting her, sat gazing till morning without a moment's sleep, the author fell asleep still longing for her. She dreamed they were together at the princess's exactly as they used to be, and woke with a start to find it a dream. The moon had come down close to the ridge. Wishing she had not woken, she gazed all the harder, and made a poem.

The author is known only as the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue. "The one she depended on" is her husband, Tachibana no Toshimichi; the small children are her own. Of the woman who went down as the wife of the governor of Echizen, the lady at the princess's household, the three of one mind, and the woman who went down to Chikuzen, the text gives neither names nor stations. Echizen is a province on the Japan Sea coast, Shirayama a mountain on the border of Kaga and Echizen, Uzumasa the Kōryūji in the capital, and Chikuzen a province in Kyushu.

Early in the third month, at a place deep in the Western Hills west of the capital.

Not a soul in sight, the haze lying peacefully, and in that forlorn stillness the cherry alone in full bloom: that sight drew the poem.

It is a solitary poem, and no reply is recorded. After it comes the retreat at Uzumasa during a difficult time in her marriage.

Sato tōmi attaches mi to the stem of the adjective tōshi and gives a cause: because the village is far. Amari oku naru is "too deep in the hills." The third line fixes the place. Hanami ni totemo is "even for flower-viewing," totemo being tote with the particle mo. In the close zari is the negative auxiliary and keri the note of recognition: no one comes. Splendid blossom and the absence of anyone to see it are set side by side in a single verse. "Omoiidete hitokosotowane yamazatono magakinoogini akikazewafuku" in Section 22 also turns on no one coming, but there an autumn wind was set opposite as the thing that does come, while here there is only the blossom; and the reason for no one coming is attributed to distance rather than to anyone's heart, which is the same movement as in "Taezarishi omoimoimawa taenikeri koshinowatarino yukinofukasani."

Author

Sugawara no Takasue no Musume

Source

Sarashina Nikki

Other