Izaribi mo ama no kobune mo nodokeshi na ikeru kai aru ura ni kinikeri

English Translation

The fishing fires and
the seafolk's little boats alike
lie quiet. I have
come to a bay where living
is worth the living — where shells are.

Meaning

The fishing fires and the seafolk's little boats lie quiet alike. I have come to a bay where living is worth the living.

Commentary

39 Screen Poems for the Celebration of the Minister of the Left of Koichijō

The eighth month came. About that time the world was in an uproar over the celebration for the Minister of the Left of Koichijō. The Captain of the Left Gate Guards was to have the screens made, and by way of a connection that had no business asking for poems, the author was pressed to write. What one is given is a written list of the scenes painted on the screens. She sent it back again and again, saying the thing was hollow; but they insisted beyond all reason, and so in the evenings, in the intervals of moon-gazing, she thought out one or two at a time. What follows are the poems made for each of the painted scenes. Thus she was forced into a tiresome business, and into a great number of pieces besides; and of these, she hears, the one on the fishing fires and the one on the flock of plovers were the ones chosen.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. Neither the Minister of the Left of Koichijō nor the Captain of the Left Gate Guards who arranged the celebration is named in the text, which gives only office and residence; marginal notes in the base text identify them as Fujiwara no Morotada and Fujiwara no Naritoki. A screen poem is written to accompany a scene painted on a screen, the poet being given a written description of the picture beforehand.
It is the eighth month of the second year of Anna, and the place is the author's dwelling.
It was written for a painting of fishing fires lit on the shore, with boats at anchor.
The narrative says that of these poems the one on the fishing fires and the one on the flock of plovers were the ones chosen; this is the poem on the fishing fires.

The opening names the fires lit at night to draw the fish, setting the painted shore at the door of the poem. The second names the seafolk's small boats, and fire and boat together make the night scene of the beach. The third is an exclamation at how quiet it all is, fixing the stillness of the picture. The fourth means that life is worth living, but the word for worth also means a shell, and it is that which brings in the bay; on it the poem turns. The close ends with the discovery that she has come to such a bay. To say that living is worth the living sits well in a poem for a screen made to celebrate long life, and the shell of the shore ties the painted scene to the language of blessing in a single word. It is one of the two chosen from the nine, and no doubt it was the combination of fidelity to the picture with an unfailing note of felicitation that recommended it.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other