Uchi to nomi kaze no kokoro o yosumereba kaeshi wa fuku mo otoruramu kashi

English Translation

Since it seems the wind
sets its heart inward only,
toward your own side,
the one that blows back in reply
will surely prove the weaker.

Meaning

Since the wind seems to set its heart inward only, toward your own side, the one that blows back in reply will surely prove the weaker.

Commentary

79 Matching Poems for the Farewell Gift

Toward the end of the fifth month Kaneie wrote that he had composed several poems to send to someone setting out on a distant journey, and that she should compose one too, so that the better might be sent. This is the poem the author made in answer.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke and would rise to be regent and chancellor. The traveler is not named in the text. It was the custom of the time to send a poem with a parting gift, tied to a bag or the like.
It is toward the end of the fifth month of the first year of Tenen, and the places are the author's dwelling and Kaneie's residence.
Kaneie wrote that he had composed several poems to send to someone setting out on a distant journey, and that she should compose one too, so that the better might be sent. This is her answer.
After this poem, toward the end of the eighth month, the author moved to Hirohata no Nakagawa without telling Kaneie, and composed "Nagarete no toko to tanomite koshikadomo waga nakagawa wa asenikerashi mo."

The word at the opening means the inside, one's own party, and in the language of a poetry match it describes a judge leaning toward one side. The second line means that the wind sets its heart that way, laying a judge's partiality over a wind that blows toward one quarter. The third means: since it appears so, and passes to the second half. The word in the fourth means a poem sent in reply and also a wind that blows back, and on it the poem turns: a wind answering a wind is exactly the relation of an answering poem to the poem it answers. The close means that it will surely be the weaker, its final particle pressing the point. To the proposal that they should each write and send the better poem, she answers that since he inclines to his own side her reply must be the weaker — and so declines the contest. Avoiding the competition while lightly suggesting that the judging will not be impartial, it is a neat way of meeting a request to write on another's behalf.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other