Okuyamano odoronoshitamo fumiwakete michiaruyozoto hitonishirasen

English Translation

Through the deep mountains,
under the tangled briars,
I will break a path
and let it be known to all
that this is an age with a way

Meaning

I will push through even the briars deep in the mountains, and let people know that this is an age in which there is a way.

Commentary

Book One: Odoro no Shita

Go-Toba, the eighty-second sovereign, was the fourth son of Takakura. After the Taira fled west with the child emperor Antoku, the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa summoned his grandsons to look at them; the third prince wept and would not go near him, but the fourth prince climbed at once onto his knee and seemed fond of him, so the Cloistered Emperor exclaimed that here was a true grandson, and in the eighth month of Juei 2 set him on the throne at the age of four. The sacred sword had gone down into the sea with the former emperor, so that for the first time an accession took place without the three regalia. After the Cloistered Emperor's death Go-Toba ruled in his own right; the realm was at peace and the way of poetry flourished. In Kenkyu 9, at nineteen, he abdicated to Tsuchimikado and began his cloistered rule, building a villa at Minase where he spent himself on the pleasures of the seasons. He held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds, established the Bureau of Poetry, had the Shinkokinshu compiled, and held its celebratory banquet in Genkyu 2. In Jogen 4 he set Tsuchimikado aside and raised Juntoku to the throne, and Juntoku too gave himself to poetry. At Minase the retired emperor played go and small archery, explained the old precedent of the stakes, and had a guardsman prepare the dish described by Murasaki Shikibu—in everything he showed the range of his gifts. At the selected poetry contest of Kempo 2, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi of the Northern Guard was called on for nine poems; the Yoshimizu bishop Jien offered the retired emperor a long poem, and Teika wrote a long poem in reply on the spot. The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado composed a hundred poems privately, showed them to Ietaka and Teika, and exchanged poems with Teika.
Go-Toba's personal name was Takahira; he was the fourth son of Takakura, and his mother was Shichijoin, daughter of Nobutaka, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Tsuchimikado's personal name was Tamehito, and his mother was Shomeimon'in, daughter of the priest Noen and adopted daughter of the Inner Minister Michichika. Juntoku's personal name was Morinari, and his mother was Shumeimon'in. The regent Kujo Yoshitsune was called a saint of poetry, and the compilers of the Shinkokinshu were Michitomo, Ariie, Teika, Ietaka and Masatsune. The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, Fujiwara no Kanemitsu, and the Middle Counselor Sukezane, Fujiwara no Sukezane, were each called on for screen poems at an accession thanksgiving. Kunaikyo was descended from Emperor Murakami through the Minister of the Left Toshifusa, and was the daughter of a man who died holding only the fourth rank. Fujiwara no Hideyoshi served in the retired emperor's Northern Guard, and the Yoshimizu bishop Jien was a poet-monk who long held the office of Tendai abbot.
After the death of the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa in Kenkyu 3, Go-Toba ruled alone; the seas were calm, the wind did not rattle the branches, and the realm was at peace. He was learned in every art, and above all excelled in the way of poetry.
Of the countless imperial poems on people's lips, this is the one singled out.
The narrator finds in it a clear sign of how seriously he took the business of government, and calls it truly beyond praise. The title of this book is taken from its second line.

The first line raises deep mountains where no one walks, and the second names the tangle of briars, an emblem of ground without a path; the particle attached to it means even there. The third line is the act of pushing through. In the fourth line the word for way is at once a mountain track and the right course men should keep, the government a ruler establishes, and the emphatic particle presses it home. The closing auxiliary is one of will. The upper lines give the concrete mountain scene and the lower lines its hidden sense, moving from landscape to meaning. Set beside the later poem from Oki, "Warekosowa niijimamoriyo okinoumino arakinamikaze kokoroshitefuke", the same flat, willed declaration shows itself as the retired emperor's characteristic manner.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Masukagami

Other