月も見てねにきといひし人の上に
をきしもせしを大鳥のこと
をきしもせしを大鳥のこと
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuki mo mite neniki to iishi hito no ue ni okishimo seji o ōtori no goto
- English Translation
-
On one who told me
she had looked at the moon and slept,
surely no frost would
settle as she rose, the way
it falls on the great bird
- Meaning
- Surely no frost would settle, as on the great bird's wings, upon one who said she had looked at the moon and gone to sleep.
- Commentary
-
31 Frost on the Great Bird's Wings
After their exchange about the god of Kazuragi, the prince visited more often than before, and Izumi Shikibu felt her loneliness consoled beyond measure. Meanwhile, ill-intentioned men kept sending her letters and even loitered about her house themselves, so that some foolish trouble might arise. She thought she ought to go to the prince's residence soon, yet she still felt hesitant and could not make up her mind once and for all.
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.
On the frosty white morning, Izumi Shikibu's "Waga ue wa chidori mo tsugeji ōtori no hane ni mo shimo wa sa ya wa okikeru" arrived, and the prince sent back this poem.
That very evening the prince came to her and invited her: "How lovely the autumn leaves on the mountains must be now. Come, let us go and see them."
The opening lines mean "who said she had seen the moon and gone to sleep," with auxiliaries of completion and past. The third line, "upon that person," answers her "of how I fare."
The lower verses mean "frost would not settle, as on the great bird," where "okishimo" overlays frost settling with rising from bed and "shimo" also means frost, with an auxiliary of negative conjecture and a word meaning "like." Taking up her "great bird," "frost" and "settled," he teases that frost could hardly settle on one who sleeps, and answers her appeal by visiting her that same day.
- Author
- Prince Atsumichi
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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