Aui to ka kikedomo yoso ni tachibana no

English Translation

Hollyhock, they say —
the day of meeting, they say; and yet,
standing off at a distance, that orange tree —

Meaning

Hollyhock, they call it — the day of meeting, they call it; and yet there stands the orange tree, off at a distance from me.

Commentary

21 The Kamo Festival and the Fifth-Month Banquet

About that time she went out to see the festival of the fourth month, and that other party had come out too. Judging that it must be so, she drew up to meet them. The waiting being tedious, she took some orange fruit that was at hand, hung hollyhock on it, and sent over an opening verse. After a good while the closing verse came back. Some said that after so many years as a person she had every reason to dislike, she would say only that it was impertinent. When she came home and told Kaneie how it had gone, he said: did you not tell her you felt you could eat her up? — and was much amused. That year the Emperor was to attend the fifth-month banquet, and there was a great commotion about it. When Kaneie said that he would like to see it somehow but had no place to view it from, and that if she wished to see it — she caught him up and proposed a game of backgammon; very well, he said, the stake to be a place at the viewing, and they played. Delighted, she went about her preparations, and in the quiet of the evening she drew the inkstone to her, wrote a poem as though idly practicing, and pushed it over to him. He laughed and gave her a verse in return; and since he meant her to see it after all, he had one of the two rooms adjoining the Prince's viewing stand partitioned off, splendidly furnished, and let her see.
Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, and would rise to be regent and chancellor. The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. The one called that other party is named in the text only by a word for a place; no name is given. The Prince's viewing stand is a stand set up for watching the festival.
It is the day of the Kamo festival, the fourth month of the third year of Kōhō, and the place is a carriage at the viewing.
She had gone out to see the festival and found that the other party had come out too. Judging it to be so, she drew up to meet them; and the waiting being tedious, she hung hollyhock on some orange fruit that was at hand and sent over this opening verse.
After a good while the closing verse came back: "Kimi ga tsurasa o kyō koso wa mire." Some said that after so many years as a person she had reason to dislike, she would call it nothing but impertinence. When she told Kaneie of it at home, he asked whether she had not said she felt she could eat the woman up, and was much amused.

This is the opening verse of a linked pair, framed so that the other must supply the close. The plant of the first line is the hollyhock worn at the Kamo festival, and its name also carries the words for a day of meeting, so that the scene of the festival and the wish for a meeting are held in one word. The second line means: so they say — implying that the day of meeting is a name with nothing behind it. What follows means at a distance from oneself, pointing to the space between two carriages at the same festival. The word in the third line is the orange, and it also contains the verb for standing, so that a tree standing apart and a piece of fruit are present at once. The narrative's account of hanging hollyhock on orange fruit becomes, without alteration, the material of the verse. The orange being the flower that calls up the past, it also summons the long years between them. Setting side by side a day of meeting that is only a name and an orange standing apart, the verse breaks off and leaves the rest to the other — the device of linked verse working to good effect.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other