Hitogokoro uji no ajiro ni tamasaka ni yoru hiru dani mo tazunekeru kana

English Translation

The human heart is
a bitter thing — yet at Uji's
fish-weir, rare as it
is, you have come seeking me,
by night and by day alike.

Meaning

The human heart is a bitter thing; and yet here at the fish-weir of Uji, rarely as such things happen, you have come seeking me, by night and by day alike.

Commentary

28 The Return from Hatsuse: The Fish-Weir at Uji

She would have liked to stay a little longer, but at daybreak the household made a great noise and set her on her way. On the return she meant to travel quietly, yet at one place and another they entertained her and detained her, so that it went by in a bustle. On the third day she should have reached the capital, but as it had grown quite dark they stopped at a place called the imperial pasture at Kuze in Yamashiro. It was very uncomfortable, but since night had fallen there was nothing to do but wait for morning. Setting out while it was still dark, they were overtaken by a man in dark clothes on horseback. He dismounted at some distance and knelt. He proved to be one of the guard. When they asked what it was, he said that his lordship had reached the Uji lodge about the hour of the cock the day before, and had ordered him to go and see whether she had come back. The men ahead gave orders about setting the boats afloat. As they neared the Uji river, fog lay so thick that the way behind was invisible, and it was all very uncertain. While the carriage was being taken down and much fuss made over it, voices multiplied and someone called out to set the carriage down. Below the fog the familiar fish-weir came into view. It was lovely beyond words. He himself must be on the far bank. So she wrote this first and had it carried across. As the boat came in to the shore, an answer came. While they were reading it, the carriage was set aboard and rowed noisily across.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. The one waiting at the Uji lodge was Kaneie, third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, who would rise to be regent and chancellor. The guard is an attendant who accompanies a nobleman for his protection.
It is the ninth month of the first year of Anna, on the return from the pilgrimage to Hatsuse, and the place is the bank of the Uji river.
On a bank thick with fog, guessing that Kaneie must be on the far side, she wrote this first and had it carried across.
As the boat came in to shore, the answer arrived: "Kaeru hi o kokoro no uchi ni kazoetsutsu tare ni yorite ka ajiro o mo tou." While they were reading it, the carriage was set aboard and rowed noisily across.

The opening names the human heart, and leads into the place name of the second line. Uji is used with the word for bitter folded into it, so that the murmur that the human heart is a bitter thing is packed inside the sound of the name; this is the pivot of the whole poem. The weir of the second line is the framework set in the river to catch the small fish for which Uji was famous, and it is at the same time the actual thing appearing below the fog before her eyes. The third line means rarely, unexpectedly, and carries an implication about how seldom he comes. In the fourth line the word for night also carries the sense of fish gathering at the weir, and so belongs to the imagery. Saying by night and by day, she acknowledges that he has waited for her over a long road. The close is exclamatory: that he should have come. She lets a grievance sound in the bitterness folded into the place name, and then, at the end, allows herself plain pleasure — an unusually bright note for an exchange in this diary. That the scene itself, a weir showing under fog, supplies the poem's material is very much in the manner of a verse made on a journey.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other