Shirazarishi mukashiniimaya kaerinan kashikokiyoyono atonarainaba

English Translation

To an age I never
knew myself, might I now
return at last,
if I should learn the traces
of those illustrious reigns

Meaning

Might I now return to an age I never knew, if I were to learn the traces of those illustrious reigns?

Commentary

Book Five: Uchino no Yuki

The father of the present empress was the Minister of the Right Saneuji, and his father was the late Chancellor Kintsune. Kintsune had once had a dream, and near the northern hills where the Captain of the Genji is said to have had his fever charmed away he built a hall of unexampled magnificence, calling it Saionji. The ground had belonged to Sukenaka of the third rank and was exchanged for an estate called Matsugae in Owari. It had been mostly fields and altogether rustic, but it was dug up and reshaped into an elegant garden: the hills stood thick with trees, the pond lay broad as a sea, and the sound of the waterfall from the ridge was enough to bring tears; the whole place showed depth of taste. In the main hall the Buddha was rendered as awesomely as if he were living flesh; Zenshakuin held Yakushi, Kudokuzoin held Jizo, a Myoon hall stood by the pond and a Fudo below the waterfall, a Godai hall above the stone bridge, and at Jojushin'in the secret rite of Aizen was performed without a break. The minister lived in the northern main hall. When young cherry trees were being planted among the old evergreens of the surrounding hills, he hummed a poem. In the capital there was nothing but splendour, but on the island of Sado the retired emperor Juntoku, who had been reported unwell, died on the twelfth day of the ninth month, at forty-six. The year turned to Kangen 1. From the twenty-sixth day of the fifth month the Saishoko services were held, and the regent and all the nobles and courtiers attended. The carriages of the commanders of the Left and Right quarrelled over their places at the guardhouse with a violence that was frightening to see. The next day the former Inner Minister Michiteru of Koga held the eight lectures at his Toba house, and the men of his house gathered in numbers. On the twenty-eighth came the fifth scroll of the palace services, and on the twenty-ninth the memorial rites for the Fugenji lord at Jokomyoin of Hoshoji; there was nothing but holy observance everywhere. The empress had been with child since the year before. In the sixth month, as her time drew near, envoys were sent with offerings to thirteen shrines, and the rites of the Seven Yakushi and the Five Altars began. From dawn on the tenth the signs came and the household was in an uproar; the whole realm cried out and carriages ran to and fro. The empress suffered greatly, and as the day wore on spirits of every kind named themselves and clamoured, and the grief of the minister and his wife was pitiful to see. In the palace there were already two young princes by lesser consorts, but the succession had been left unsettled in expectation of this birth. In the late afternoon her elder brother, the Major Counselor Kinsuke, called out loudly that a prince had been born, and to those who heard it was as though day had broken. The father asked whether it were true, and as he spoke the tears of joy fell. The birth celebrations followed on the twelfth, the fourteenth and the sixteenth, and the ninth-night rite was arranged by Shomeimon'in; the long knot in that retired empress's heart was loosened at last. Tsuchimikado's daughter, Princess Kakushi, also received a retired empress's title and was called Ogimachiin. That night the fiftieth-day rite for the young prince born to the Hyoe no Naishi was held at the same residence. The empress's son was declared a prince on the twenty-eighth; on the twenty-eighth of the seventh month both empress and prince entered the palace, and his fiftieth-day rite was held there in the intercalary seventh month. On the tenth day of the eighth month he was smoothly made crown prince: this is the later Go-Fukakusa. A house that had not long before been of no great account had lately grown weighty in the world, and with this empress entering the palace and a crown prince born to her it flourished the more. The lay monk Kintsune lived long enough to see such descendants, and in the tenth month of that year went on pilgrimage to Kumano with a magnificence surpassing the progresses of former reigns. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month the thirteenth-year rites for Tsuchimikado were held at Kanehara, and Shomeimon'in went there too. On the first of the twelfth month came the imperial visit to the Iwashimizu shrine, on the fifth the visit to Kamo, and on the sixth the initiation of the Ninnaji cloistered prince, so that the world rang with it all. The next year, Kangen 2, the Major Counselor Yoritsune in the east was reported ill and returned to the capital, passing his office to his son of six, who was made shogun that same day and took the name Yoritsugu. Yasutoki had taken vows two years before and passed everything to his grandson Tokiyori, so that the realm was now guided by Tokiyori as Governor of Sagami; the warriors followed him and the world was quiet and well ordered. On the twenty-eighth day of the first month of Kangen 4 the emperor abdicated to the crown prince, who was also four years old. Michiie's third son, the Minister of the Left Sanetsune, became regent at twenty-four; he was later called the Emmyoji lord and is the founder of the Ichijo house. The retired empress's father Saneuji became chancellor and was granted the use of an ox carriage. About that time, at the height of the blossom in the northern hills, he presented a poem to the retired emperor; the reply has not been preserved. The accession and purification passed, and about the time of the thanksgiving, when the Sho no Naishi, daughter of the poet Nobuzane, was serving at the palace workshop, the snow fell heavily for days, and at dawn, when it lay deep, the chancellor sent her a poem, and she replied. Go-Saga made frequent progresses and took a modern delight in music and entertainment. His first progress to Saionji was a rare sight, and the chancellor's hospitality was magnificent. Presenting as a gift the calligraphic models of former reigns, the chancellor composed a poem, and the retired emperor replied. The empress too left her position and was called Omiya-in. The retired emperor went to the Iwashimizu shrine and stayed some days, and all the world attended him. Remembering in his heart what had happened one year, he made his obeisance with particular reverence, composed many poems and had them sealed in the treasury. About the Hoji years, past the twentieth of the tenth month, he made a progress to Uji to see the autumn leaves, halting his boat at Tachibana island while the instruments played, crossing to the Byodoin, where there were pleasures past counting, and returning after a night spent in noise over the ice-fish at the weirs.
The present empress was the daughter of the Minister of the Right Saneuji, whose father was the late Chancellor Kintsune, the builder of Saionji. Kintsune was the father-in-law of Michiie of Komyobuji and the grandfather of the shogun in the east. The empress's elder brother was the Major Counselor Kinsuke, and Kinmoto and Sanekatsu were of the same connection; her mother was the daughter of the Major Counselor Takahira of Shijo. Go-Saga was the son of Tsuchimikado, whose mother was Shomeimon'in. The prince born to Go-Saga and the empress became Go-Fukakusa, and the prince born to the Hyoe no Naishi was Prince Munetaka. Princess Kakushi was Tsuchimikado's daughter and was called Ogimachiin. Michiie of Komyobuji had as sons the regent Norizane of Toin, Yoshizane of Nijo who was called the Fukoen'in lord, Sanetsune of Ichijo who was called the Emmyoji lord, and Yoritsune the shogun in the east, whose son was Yoritsugu. Hojo Yasutoki took vows and passed his office to his grandson Tokiyori, who as Governor of Sagami guided the realm. The Sho no Naishi was the daughter of Nobuzane and was known as a poet.
Go-Saga made frequent progresses from early on and was fond of entertainments in the modern manner. His first visit to the Saionji, the narrator says, was a rare spectacle.
The chancellor Saneuji hosted it magnificently, in a style that needs no describing. The Saionji had been built in the northern hills by his father Kintsune, and Saneuji was his son and the father of the empress.
This is the reply to the minister's "Tsutaekiku hijirinoyoyono atoomite furukiouutsusu michinarawanan", composed when the calligraphic models of past reigns were presented as a gift for the visit.
The narrative goes on to say that the empress left her position and was called Omiya-in, and that the retired emperor went to Iwashimizu and sealed his poems in the shrine treasury; the book closes with the progress to Uji in the Hoji years.

The first line, an age he never knew, answers the other poem's phrase about knowing only by report: where the minister said he had heard of it, the retired emperor says he had not known it, and both accept that neither has seen those reigns directly. The interrogative particle in the second line is answered by the auxiliary at the close of the third, so that the poem asks whether he might now return there. The fourth line restates the sagely reigns as illustrious ones, and the fifth takes over the words for traces and for learning exactly as they stood, so that the lower half is built almost wholly out of the other poem's language. The conditional at the end places the condition after the question, an inversion that supplies the reason for the doubt in the upper lines. Where the minister's poem wished that he would learn, the reply takes the learning upon himself and asks whether it might bring the past back, so that his acceptance of the remonstrance shows in the very form of the answer.

Author

Go-Saga In

Source

Masukagami

Other