Kasugayama kozonoyayoino hananokani someshikokorowa kamizoshiran

English Translation

On Kasuga hill,
the scent of the blossoms
of last year's third month
dyed this heart of mine, and that
the god alone must surely know

Meaning

The god alone must know how the scent of last year's blossoms on Kasuga hill dyed my heart.

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.
The new emperor's reign was full of splendour, with frequent progresses to one place and another. In Kempo 2 there was a progress to the Kasuga shrine, at which everyone vied with everyone else, and it was a fine occasion.
In the following year, composing a hundred poems, the emperor recalled the progress of the year before and wrote this.
The account goes on to say that his temper was rather sharper and more brilliant than that of the new retired emperor, that he was learned in both Japanese and Chinese letters, and that his occupation morning and evening was the way of poetry; the Yakumo Misho is said to be his work as well.

The first line raises the hill behind the Kasuga shrine and so fixes the site of the progress in a single word. The second sets the time at the third month of last year, and the third entrusts memory to something as fugitive as scent. The verb in the fourth line is to dye, so that the fragrance of blossom has stained the heart; treating scent as a dyestuff is the poem's conceit. The emphatic particle at the close answers the closing auxiliary of conjecture: what no one can see within the heart is known only to the god of the shrine he visited. The poem offers the god the proof of an inward feeling, and in drawing a public ceremony back into a private matter known only to the god and himself, it shows the depth of this emperor's feeling.

Author

Emperor Juntoku

Source

Masukagami

Other