Yosoyoriwa shiguremoikaga somezaran wagauetemiru yamanomomijiba

English Translation

More than elsewhere,
how should the cold showers fail
to dye them deeply—
these autumn leaves on the hill
that I planted and watch myself?

Meaning

How should the showers fail to dye these more deeply than elsewhere—the autumn leaves of the hill I planted myself and watch?

Commentary

Book Eight: Yama no Momijiba

The abdication ceremony of the twenty-sixth day of the eleventh month of Shogen 1 followed the usual form, and the accession took place on the twenty-eighth of the twelfth month. All was as splendid as it should be, and the year turned. The abdicated emperor received the title of retired sovereign on the second of the twelfth month and was called the new retired emperor. He and the senior retired emperor were constantly together, with frequent entertainments to divert them, and his life became, if anything, quieter and more agreeable, so that he seemed consoled. The empress, after receiving her title, was called Higashi Nijoin and moved to Nijo Tominokoji. The chancellor took vows and lived at times at a place called Tokiwai at Oimikado Kyogoku. His younger brother, then Minister of the Right and called Saneo, had many daughters, and cherished the finest of them; she was to appear as proxy consort at the accession, and it was arranged that she should enter the palace in Bunno 1. He obtained the retired emperor's consent. There was talk that a granddaughter of the lay chancellor would also enter, but he pressed on, thinking it unlikely; the narrator calls it a bold spirit. This lady's eldest brother, the Middle Counselor Kinmune, harboured some feeling and smouldered in secret misery, which was pitiable. Though he tried to put away so impossible a thing, his heart would not obey, and he wept much, waking and sleeping; as the preparations drew near he went about beside himself, and the minister worried over what could be done. On an elegant evening when the first autumn wind was stirring, the minister came and found her seated a little outside the curtain, in pale robes layered with maidenflower colours; her form and features were beyond words, noble and radiant, and pitifully lovely. Pushing the curtain aside, he beat the measure as though casually and had her play the koto. Just then the Middle Counselor came in; called within the blinds, he too was admirable to look at, altogether quiet and elegant. He played a little on the flute, and the sound rose clear into the sky; while it was joined with the faint, tender notes of the koto, one could scarcely attend to it for the tears that came, but he kept his composure. The ceremony of her entry on the twenty-second of the tenth month was likewise splendid, with ten carriages. The emperor secretly noticed one of the maids, Nukigawa, and a princess was born of her, who in the end became the wife of the Konoe regent Ieoto. Since the consort was so beautiful the emperor grew attached to her. She was sixteen, and the emperor twelve, but grown-up for his age, so that they suited one another. She was soon raised to empress, and the minister's satisfaction was without limit. When the Saionji consort entered in her turn he was alarmed, but it came to nothing. She was nine, the daughter of Lord Kinsuke of Reizei, and was said to have been made a daughter of Omiya-in. As the two were closely related, their rivalry must have produced things unpleasant to hear. She too was raised to empress, so that the former empress moved up and was called senior empress. The new empress cared only for amusements and was never seen to be serious, so her standing was said to be declining, which the world found surprising. About the second month of Kocho 3, when the whole world was bright with haze and the spring wind blew mild, the cherries before the Kameyama villa began to open more finely than usual, and an imperial visit was arranged. The regent Yoshizane of Nijo had returned to office some three years earlier, and his guardsmen broke branches of blossom and arrived before the imperial party. Almost every brilliant noble attended. The new retired emperor and both retired empresses came as well. Boats were floated at the water's edge before the villa, with charming pages and young men of fourth rank aboard, and their rowing out from under the flowering trees was delightful past compare; music and dance were performed with every skill. After the music poems were presented; the topic is said to have been that blossoms pledge distant years. On the day of return, among the many gifts, calligraphic models of the Engi era were attached to an artificial plum branch with a warbler perched on it, and the retired emperor composed a poem with them. The narrator regrets that with age she has forgotten the reply. About the fifth month of that year the senior retired emperor copied out the Lotus Sutra according to the strict rule at the Kameyama villa. Go-Shirakawa had done such a thing, but only after taking the tonsure, so that this was a great vow. The Middle Counselor Moritsugu of Kazan'in was the only man in attendance, and eminent scholars of the exoteric and esoteric teachings were summoned. Following, perhaps, the precedent of Jotomon'in, Omiya-in copied it too. After the tenfold offering he took it himself to the Jokongoin, with the regent, the ministers and the nobles walking in procession behind him. On the thirteenth night of the ninth month of that year a poetry contest was held at the pavilion of the Kameyama villa. Such things had been frequent at the Shirakawa and Toba villas, but this one was prepared with particular care. The right's poems were selected by the regent, and the left's were examined before the retired emperor. The lord at this time was the Emmyoji lord, who had been regent at the beginning of the new retired emperor's reign and had returned to the office about a year before. The former regent attended the retired emperor's side. For the left, the senior lord had counters made, and on an ornamental tray of aloeswood two silver boats were set, piled with sheets of coloured paper written over; the counters too were of aloeswood and placed in the boats. The readers of both sides came before the retired emperor together and read out; for the left it was the Middle Captain Tomouji and for the right Yukiie. On the topic of mountain autumn leaves the senior retired emperor composed a poem. In the end the left won the greater number. When the reading was over and the night grew late the music began, with flute, mouth organ, oboe and lute, and kotos joined from within the blinds. Between the pieces the chancellor and the Major Counselor Michinari of Tsuchimikado chanted Chinese verses. The waves on the river grew desolate as the night deepened, and the moon seemed to have laid down ice. The autumn leaves of Arashiyama came down on the wind through the pines and scattered into the wine cups on the veranda, a thing elegant enough to be made into a deliberate device, and the younger people felt it to the bone. For some years past the former Inner Minister Motoie, the lay Major Counselor Tameie, Yukiie of the second rank and the lay Controller Mitsutoshi had been charged with an anthology, which was said to be on the point of appearing. Following the precedent of Genkyu the senior retired emperor polished it himself, so that these must be jewels with a particular lustre. Its preface is said to have declared that the islands of Yamato were his own age and the bay of poetry his own country. Except in the Kin'yoshu the names of imperial sons have not appeared, and this time the name of the prince of Central Affairs in the east was not written, which is a mark of high standing. Perhaps following the precedent of the Shinkokinshu, a celebratory banquet was held. This collection is called the Shokukokinshu.
The senior retired emperor is Go-Saga, the new retired emperor is the abdicated Go-Fukakusa, and the reigning emperor is Kameyama. Higashi Nijoin was the second daughter of Saneuji of Saionji and had been Go-Fukakusa's empress. The chancellor Saneuji took vows about this time and lived at Tokiwai. His younger brother, the Minister of the Right Saneo, sent a daughter into the palace, and she was soon raised to empress; the Middle Counselor Kinmune was Saneo's son and her elder brother. The Saionji consort was the daughter of Lord Kinsuke of Reizei, said to have been made a daughter of Omiya-in; Kinsuke too was Saneuji's son. The regent Yoshizane of Nijo was a son of the Komyobuji lord Michiie, and the Emmyoji lord, also called the Ichijo lord, was Sanetsune, another of Michiie's sons. The anthology was entrusted to the former Inner Minister Motoie, the lay Major Counselor Tameie, Yukiie of the second rank and the lay Controller Mitsutoshi. The prince of Central Affairs in the east was Prince Munetaka, Go-Saga's eldest son, who had gone east as shogun.
On the thirteenth night of the ninth month of Kocho 3 a poetry contest was held at the pavilion of the Kameyama villa. Such things had been frequent at the Shirakawa and Toba villas, but this one was prepared with particular care. The right's poems were selected by the regent, and the left's were examined before the retired emperor.
For the left, the senior lord had counters made, and on an ornamental tray of aloeswood two silver boats were set, piled with sheets of coloured paper written over; the counters too were of aloeswood and placed in the boats. The readers of both sides came before the retired emperor together and read out, the Middle Captain Tomouji for the left and Yukiie for the right. This is the senior retired emperor's poem on the topic of mountain autumn leaves. The Kameyama villa was the residence he had built at the foot of Kameyama in Saga, on the north bank of the Oi river, where the treetops of Ogura and the Tonase falls seemed to lie within his own fence.
In the end the left won the greater number. When the reading ended and the night deepened the music began, and the leaves of Arashiyama, carried on the wind through the pines, scattered into the wine cups on the veranda, which the younger people felt to the bone. The title of this book comes from the last line of this poem.

The first line sets up a comparison with other hills. In the second, the cold showers have long been treated in poetry as what dyes the leaves, and the interrogative carries the force of a denial. With the conjectural auxiliary in the third line the two make a rhetorical question: how should the showers fail to dye them—of course they will. To this point the claim stands that the showers must colour these leaves more deeply, and the lower lines give the reason. The fourth line says that he planted them with his own hand and looks on them daily, and the close rests on a noun. The argument is that the working of nature is deepened by the heart of the man who planted, so that a private circumstance, his own building of the villa, is brought into the topic of mountain autumn leaves. Making the act of planting the centre of a poem is the same idea as in "Yamazakura minenimoonimo ueokan minuyonoharuo hitoyashinobuto", where Kintsune wrote in the fifth book; but where that turned toward an age the planter would not see, this recognises his own hand in the colour of leaves he is looking at now, and the pride of the builder becomes the reasoning of the poem.

Author

Go-Saga In

Source

Masukagami

Other