手枕の袖にも霜は置けるを
けさうちみれは白妙にして
けさうちみれは白妙にして
- Roma-ji
-
Tamakura no sode ni mo shimo wa okikeru o kesa uchimireba shirotae ni shite
- English Translation
-
On the sleeve that pillowed
you as well, the frost, I find,
has settled down;
this morning, as I glance at it,
it is all white as silk
- Meaning
- Frost has settled even on the sleeve where you pillowed your head; looking at it this morning, I find it pure white.
- Commentary
-
27 Frosty Mornings and the Page Boy
On the night of their exchange about the arm-pillow sleeve, the moon also shone very bright and clear, and Izumi Shikibu and the prince each gazed at it until dawn in their separate places. The next morning the prince was having someone ask whether his usual page boy had come, meaning to send a letter. Meanwhile Izumi Shikibu, perhaps moved by the brilliant whiteness of the frost, sent a poem first. The prince was vexed at having been forestalled.
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. The page boy was the youth who carried the prince's letters to her.
On the morning after a night spent gazing at the moon, moved by the pure white frost that covered the garden, Izumi Shikibu sent this poem before the prince could write.
Vexed at being forestalled, the prince murmured "Tsuma kou to okiakashitsuru shimo nareba." Just then the boy arrived, and the prince, out of humor, said, "How annoying. I wanted it sent early," and handed him the letter.
The opening lines mean "frost even on the arm-pillow sleeve," now linking the arm-pillow sleeve the two had exchanged poems about with frost. The third line means "I find it has settled," expressing the surprise of discovery.
The lower verses mean "looking this morning, it is pure white," the last word meaning white cloth and so whiteness. Overlaying the whiteness of the frost on a sleeve that never slept with the chill of tears and the loneliness of a night kept awake, she adds a fresh touch to their exchanges about the arm-pillow sleeve.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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Michishiba no tsuyu to okinuru hito yori mo waga tamakura no sode wa kawakazu
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Tsuma kou to okiakashitsuru shimo nareba