Miwataseba yamamotokasumu minasegawa yūbewaakito naniomoikemu

English Translation

When I look out far,
mist lies at the mountain's foot
by Minase River—
that evening belonged to autumn:
why did I ever think so

Meaning

I look out and the foot of the mountain is veiled in haze above the Minase River. Why did I ever believe that evening was the season of autumn?

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 abdicating to Tsuchimikado in Kenkyu 9, Go-Toba repaired the Toba and Shirakawa palaces and lived in them, and also built a villa of surpassing beauty at Minase, going there often and giving himself to the blossoms and autumn leaves of every season. The prospect over the river is said to have been very fine.
In the Genkyu years a gathering was held at which Chinese poems were matched against Japanese ones, and this poem is cited as the outstanding piece of that occasion. The Masukagami gives no headnote; the occasion was the Genkyu poem and verse contest of the sixth month of Genkyu 2, on the topic of a spring prospect over a river town.
The account goes on to describe the thatched galleries and covered walks of the Minase villa, the stones over which a waterfall was led, the mossy mountain trees and the young pines in the garden, and moves to Teika's poem written when the planting was being tended.
The poem is included in the first book of spring poems in the Shinkokinshu.

The opening verb throws the view wide open. The second line sets haze, a thing of spring, at the foot of the mountain, and the third fixes the place and ends on a noun, so that the poem breaks here. The upper lines simply give the spring evening as it lies before the eye. The lower lines turn inward: the interrogative works almost as a denial, and the auxiliary of past conjecture asks why he had until now believed evening belonged to autumn. Since the Pillow Book named autumn the season of evening this had been common ground, and the poem takes the spring evening back from it. The break after the third line divides scene from reflection completely, and this distant, unlinked joining is the very manner of the Shinkokin style.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Masukagami

Other