慰むときけは語らまほしけれと
みの憂事にいふかひそなき
みの憂事にいふかひそなき
- Roma-ji
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Nagusamu to kikeba kataramahoshikeredo mi no uki koto ni iu kai zo naki
- English Translation
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Hearing it would soothe,
I long to talk with you, and yet
weighed with the sorrows
that I bear in this life of mine,
what good could words do now?
- Meaning
- When I hear it might comfort me, I do wish to talk with you; yet burdened as I am by sorrow, what use would words be?
- Commentary
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2 The First Letters
After the exchange over the orange blossom, letters began to arrive from the prince. Izumi Shikibu was not by nature one to brood deeply, but she was finding her unaccustomed idleness hard to bear, and so, trifling though it was, the correspondence caught her heart and she began to reply. The prince wrote often, she answered now and then, and she felt her loneliness eased a little.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu. His elder brother Prince Tametaka had been Izumi Shikibu's lover and had died in the sixth month of Chōhō 4 (1002).
When the prince's poem "Katarawaba nagusamu kata mo ari ya sen iu kai naku wa omowazaranamu" arrived with the suggestion that he visit quietly at dusk, Izumi Shikibu sent back this poem, adding a remark that it would likely be of no use.
Reading her reply, the prince unexpectedly decided to go to her in secret and made ready from midday. Soon he came to her in a humble carriage, and the two spent their first night together.
The first three lines mean "when I hear it would comfort me, I wish to talk, but," taking up his "if we talked, comfort" directly, with an auxiliary of desire and an adversative particle.
The lower verses mean "for the sorrows of my life, talk would be of no use," sealed by an emphatic construction. Echoing his "not worth speaking to" with her own "no use in speaking," she welcomes the invitation yet gently hesitates, citing her unhappy lot. This answer, which stops short of refusal, only spurred the prince to come.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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