Ayamegusa sokoshiranumano nagakineni fukakitoiuya yomogiunotsuyu

English Translation

The sweet-flag's long root
in a marsh whose bed no one
has ever sounded—
is it that which is called deep,
this dew on the mugwort here?

Meaning

The sweet-flag's long root in a marsh no one has sounded: is that what is called deep—this dew on the mugwort?

Commentary

Book Six: Kemuri no Suezue

About the twentieth day of the eleventh month of Hoji 2 the retired emperor went to Uji to view the autumn leaves. The nobles and courtiers had long been preparing hunting robes of their own choosing, in the deep and pale shades of chrysanthemum and maple, embroidered and figured, brocade and damask. He set out at first light on the twenty-first, boarded a boat prepared on the eastern bank of the Uji river, and landed at the fishing pavilion of the Byodoin. Sutras were chanted in the main hall, and he went through the Amida hall, the sutra repository and the penance hall. Watchfires were lit white on both banks and cormorant fishers were called, and the trays were brought in. Toward dusk the next day he viewed Maki island, Ume island and Tachibana no Kojima; music began from instruments set in the boat, so fine that one thought even the depths of the water might listen, and the distant white waves that the ascetic prince of the Uji chapters spoke of seemed to add their own note. On the twenty-third, the day of return, gifts were presented—calligraphic models, a wagon, two horses—and the retired emperor gave a horse to his host. The Minister of the Left received the first rank and danced his thanks. While he was away a fire broke out at Nijo Aburanokoji; since it lay within the wall of the Kan'in palace the imperial kitchen burned, and the cauldron handed down from the age of the gods was damaged, which everyone thought dreadful. There had once been three such cauldrons, called Hirano, Imibi and Niwabi; two were lost about the Eikan years in Enyu's reign, and when this befell the one remaining, the Bureau of Shrines was consulted and old precedents examined. On the twenty-fifth of the twelfth month came the first reading of the young prince born to the lady of third rank, later Prince Munetaka, then seven years old. The year turned to Hoji 3. At the new year salutations there was a dispute, argued long afterwards, over where the nobles should stand. On the fourth came the first progress to Shomeimon'in, and then Omiya-in's first visit to the palace. The empress was the retired emperor's elder sister, who had been called his foster mother while he reigned, and was later known as Senkamon'in. The retired emperor's son of thirteen, borne by the daughter of the Middle Captain Kinmune, became a disciple of the cloistered prince of Emmanin on the twenty-eighth of the first month, took the tonsure that night and was named Enjo. On the night of the first of the second month fire broke out from the Nijo-side wing of the Kan'in palace and the residence burned; the emperor left in haste through the gate with only the regalia. The palace had burned more than twenty times since Tentoku 4, and there had been no such fire for forty-four years since Jogen; coming after the damage to the cauldron the year before, it dismayed the retired emperor. He moved close enough to the retired emperor's residence to cross on foot. A red plum at the corner of the northern wing was blooming beautifully and could be seen from the retired emperor's rooms, so he had a poem written on elegant thin paper and tied to that plum. Ben no Naishi was to have made the reply, but it is said that the minister of Imadegawa sent one instead, and the narrator regrets having forgotten it. The era was changed to Kencho on the eighteenth of the third month because of the disorder, but the fires did not stop: on the twenty-third a fire from Anekoji Muromachi burned more than a hundred blocks, reached the hall of the Rengeoin in the afternoon, and the thousand Kannon of the thirty-three bays perished in a single blaze. Fires followed at Sorinji, Okazaki and Nakamikado, burning day after day until the end of the month, and two-thirds of the capital was destroyed. Seven diviners were summoned and told of a grave portent, and rites were begun. Since his abdication the retired emperor had made it his rule each spring to seclude himself seven days at Iwashimizu and offer the five great sutras, then go on to Kamo, Hirano and Kitano, and to visit Seiryoji in Saga, Horinji and Uzumasa; people said his reverence for gods and buddhas had no precedent past or future. The Toba villa, lately much decayed and its pond choked with weeds, was thoroughly repaired, and at his first visit poems were composed on the topic of the pines by the pond, with a preface written by the chancellor. He also went often to the chancellor's villa at Suita in Tsu. The house faced the river, so that in deep autumn under a full moon the rice in the fields, the belling of stags, the fulling blocks, the wind on the ridge and the crickets in the meadows gathered together; cormorant boats were sent out and he watched the watchfires on the water with delight. During a stay there he called for sets of ten poems, and at his own the host declared it the honour of the house. The retired emperor was not yet thirty, the emperor was a child and the regent young, so they spent their days among the ladies at games of go stones, shell matching, ball and rhyme capping. Court ceremonies were mimicked by the ladies for his amusement; the chancellor had small batons made for them. A lady of third rank was made chancellor, and the others were assigned men's offices; when Chunagon no Naishi was assigned to the Provisional Major Counselor Sanekatsu she withdrew to her room protesting that she could never manage the stockings, and the emperor laughed aloud. An exchange of poems followed. On the fifth of the fifth month, among the sweet-flag ornaments and medicine balls sent from many quarters, the Major Counselor Kinchika of Sanjo sent mugwort with the word for deep tied into it, and an exchange followed with Ben no Naishi. Visiting Tennoji, the retired emperor also went to Sumiyoshi; Omiya-in accompanied him, and the sleeves showing from the carriages were like the blossoms of spring and the leaves of autumn set out together. Many poems were composed on the veranda of the fishing pavilion. The retired emperor's eldest son, borne by the woman who had served Shijoin as Hyoe no Naishi, daughter of Taira no Munenori, had been overshadowed since the reigning emperor's birth; on the eighth of the first month of Kencho 4 he came of age before the retired emperor, was given the third rank and called Prince Munetaka, Minister of Central Affairs, at eleven. On the nineteenth of the second month he received the shogunal edict and left the capital, and the retired emperor watched him go from a carriage drawn up secretly near Awataguchi. On the thirteenth of the first month of Kencho 5 the emperor came of age at eleven; his personal name was Hisahito. About the tenth of the tenth month he made a filial visit to the retired emperor at the Toba villa, and when the retired empress too was greeted, the chancellor's tears of joy were almost unseemly. Two boats fitted out in Chinese style were rowed up on the pond. On a pilgrimage to Kumano about that time, carriages were not to be drawn up, yet Omiya-in alone watched from a single carriage without the usual display, and Ben no Naishi composed a poem. When the party reached the main shrine and crossed by river boat toward the new shrine, the boats crowded the water so thickly that the sight was strange to him, and the retired emperor composed a poem.
The retired emperor is Go-Saga, at this time not yet thirty. The chancellor is Saneuji of Saionji, father of Omiya-in and the retired emperor's father-in-law. Omiya-in was Saneuji's daughter and the mother of the emperor, the later Go-Fukakusa. The empress was the retired emperor's elder sister, later called Senkamon'in. The regent was Lord Kanetsune of Okanoya, the Minister of the Left Kanehira, the Inner Minister Sanemoto. The son who became a disciple at Emmanin was borne by the daughter of the Middle Captain Kinmune and was named Enjo. Prince Munetaka was the retired emperor's eldest son, borne by the woman who had served Shijoin as Hyoe no Naishi, daughter of Taira no Munenori; his mother is called the lady of third rank, and he went east as shogun. Dainagon no Naishi was the daughter of Tameie, Minister of Popular Affairs, and Azechi no Naishi the daughter of Takahira. Ben no Naishi and Shosho no Naishi were daughters of Lord Nobuzane and sisters. The Major Counselor Kinchika of Sanjo served close to the retired emperor.
On the fifth of the fifth month, sweet-flag ornaments and medicine balls of many kinds arrived from all quarters, and the company was handling them in the breakfast room.
Among them was one sent by the Major Counselor Kinchika of Sanjo: mugwort with dew still on the roots, into which the word for deep had been tied, the thread itself supple and very elegant. The emperor noticed it and told them to say something, anything, about it, and the others watched with grown-up faces.
Ben no Naishi composed this in answer to his command. She was the daughter of Lord Nobuzane and the sister of Shosho no Naishi.
The messenger had already gone, so a chamberlain was summoned and the poem sent from the courtiers' hall. Kinchika replied with "Ayamegusa sokoshiranumano nagakineo fukakikokoroni ikagakuraben".

The first line names sweet-flag, a plant of the festival, set beside the mugwort that was sent as belonging to the same day. In the second, the marsh where the flag grows leads by way of an unsounded bottom into the long root, so that depth and length run on together. The root of the third line is the sweet-flag's, and using the length of a root as a figure for the depth of feeling is an old device. In the fourth line the word for deep is the very word Kinchika had tied into the mugwort, taken up into the poem, with an interrogative particle; making the single word attached to a gift the pivot of a poem is the conceit here. The close rests on a noun, the dew that lay on the roots of the mugwort sent to her. Two plants of the festival, the long root and the dew, are set side by side, and the one word for deep is applied to both, so that the poem asks in return how deep the sender's feeling is. Since the reply takes over the upper lines in the same words, the exchange keeps its proper shape.

Author

Ben no Naishi

Source

Masukagami

Other