戀といへはよの常のとや思ふ覽
今朝の心はたくひたになし
今朝の心はたくひたになし
- Roma-ji
-
Koi to ieba yo no tsune no to ya omouran kesa no kokoro wa tagui dani nashi
- English Translation
-
When it comes to love,
do you think it the common kind
that all the world knows?
This morning, what fills my heart
has nothing to compare
- Meaning
- Do you think that love, when spoken of, is just the ordinary kind the world knows? This morning my heart has nothing that can be likened to it.
- Commentary
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3 The First Night Together
On receiving her reply, the prince unexpectedly resolved to visit her in secret and made ready from midday. He summoned the man of the Right Palace Guards who usually carried his letters and told him they were going out; the man understood and attended him. The prince came in a humble carriage and had his arrival announced. Izumi Shikibu felt it was most awkward, but she could not claim to be away, and having answered him that very afternoon, she thought it unkind to send him back, so, meaning only to talk, she set out a round cushion at the west double door and let him in. The prince was every bit as graceful as people said. As they talked, the moon rose and grew very bright. "Being an old-fashioned, retiring sort," he said, "I am not used to sitting so near the edge, and I feel exposed. Let me sit where you are. I will not behave like the men you have known." She answered lightly, "How strange. I meant only to talk with you tonight. What men I have known?" Meanwhile the night grew steadily later.
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 is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei. The man of the Right Palace Guards was the prince's close attendant who carried his letters and accompanied him on his outings; the title refers to a third-rank officer of the Right Inner Palace Guards.
After their talk through the blinds, the prince quietly slipped inside and the two exchanged vows. As soon as he returned home at dawn, he wrote, "How are you at this moment? My own feelings amaze me," and sent this poem as his morning-after letter.
Izumi Shikibu replied with "Yo no tsune no koto to mo sara ni omōezu hajimete mono o omou mi nareba." Yet even after answering, she was troubled and sad, remembering how much the late prince had once said to her.
The first three lines ask, "when one speaks of love, do you think it ordinary?" through an interrogative particle answered by an auxiliary of present conjecture.
The lower verses mean "this morning my heart has not even anything to compare with it," with a particle implying "not even." As a morning-after poem following their first meeting, it insists that his love is no common thing and seeks to hold her heart.
- Author
- Prince Atsumichi
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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