Ho ni ideba michi yuku hito mo maneku beki yado no susuki o horu ga warinasa

English Translation

Once it comes to ear
it would beckon even those
who pass along the road —
and to dig up such plume grass
from my garden: what a demand.

Meaning

Once in ear it would beckon even the passers-by on the road; and to dig such plume grass out of my own garden — what an unreasonable demand.

Commentary

15 Receiving the Plume Grass from the Prince's Grounds

The year turned to the third of Ōwa, and nothing in particular happened. When a man's heart is at its ordinary temper, everything passes easily enough. From the first month of that year Kaneie was granted the privy chamber. On the day of the lustration, word came from the Prince that he meant to see the procession and would ride in their carriage, with a line added at the edge of his letter. But he was not at his usual residence. Guessing that he might be somewhere about Machi no Kōji, they went there, and were told that the master was within. Borrowing an inkstone, they wrote this and sent it in, and the Prince went out with them at once. After that time had passed, the Prince returned to his usual residence, and when the author called on him the flowers were as fine as she had seen the year before. The plume grass grew in thick clumps and looked very slender, and she asked that if some might be divided off she should like a little of it. Some while later, going out to the riverbank, she found the Prince's house lay on the same road, and saying that this must be the place, she sent a page in. When the boy made to go up to the house, she told him it was no fit occasion, that he should merely tell the attendants of the plume grass she had spoken of before, and drove on past. The boy being an unreliable one, he was back before long, saying that the plume grass had come from the Prince. There it was, handsomely dug up and set in what is called a long chest, with a sheet of blue paper tied to it, and when she opened it there was a poem. It was charming enough; but what reply was she to make? Considering how long it had taken her to forget, it might be as well to leave it. And yet she wondered how it would look, then and afterward.
Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, and from the first month of that year was granted the privy chamber; he would rise to be regent and chancellor. The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. The Prince is the head of the office in which Kaneie served as deputy; the text gives no name, and he is taken to be Prince Akiakira.
It is the third year of Ōwa, and the places are the Prince's residence and the author's carriage on the road to the riverbank.
She had asked for the plume grass earlier, and when she sent a page with the message while driving out to the riverbank, the Prince sent the grass handsomely dug up in a long chest, with a sheet of blue paper tied to it. This is the poem written on that paper.
The author found it charming, but hesitated over what reply to make, and thinking that, given how long it takes to forget a thing, it might as well be left, she sent no answering poem. She adds only that she wondered how it would look, then and afterward.

The opening means: once it comes into ear — naming the ear of the plume grass and at the same time the coming out of a feeling into the open. The same phrase served as the axis of the earlier exchange beginning "Ho ni idete iwaji ya sarani ōyoso no nabiku obana ni makasete mo mimu," and it is the settled turn of phrase for poems on this grass. The second and third lines mean that it would beckon even those passing along the road, since the ears of the grass swaying in the wind seem to wave a person over. The fourth line establishes that the grass is his own, and hands on to the close, where the word means something contrary to reason, not to be helped: to be told to dig up such grass is an unreasonable demand. Since he has in fact sent it handsomely dug and boxed, the grudging is pure play, and the poem makes an apt greeting to accompany a gift.

Source

Kagero Nikki

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