ねぬるよのね覺の夢にならひてそ
伏見の里をけさは起つる
伏見の里をけさは起つる
- Roma-ji
-
Nenuru yo no nezame no yume ni naraite zo fushimi no sato o kesa wa okitsuru
- English Translation
-
Grown used, as it were,
to the dream on waking from
the night we lay together,
this morning I rose and left
the village of Fushimi
- Meaning
- As if grown accustomed to the dream of waking from our night together, this morning I rose and left Fushimi village, where we lay and dreamed.
- Commentary
-
33 The Night of the Directional Detour
The day of their exchange about the autumn leaves came to an end. Later, when the prince came and the direction of her house was closed to him, he took her away in the greatest secrecy, as before. At this time he was spending forty-five days avoiding a forbidden direction and was staying at the house of his cousin, the Third-Rank Middle Captain. Since it was an unfamiliar place, she protested that it was unseemly, but he took her there regardless, drew the carriage just as it was into a carriage shed where no one could see, and went inside. She was frightened, but after everyone had gone to sleep the prince came out, got into the carriage, and they talked of everything. Night guards who knew nothing of it made their rounds, while the usual officer of the Right Palace Guards and the page boy stayed close by. Deeply moved, the prince even came to regret his past neglect of her. At daybreak he took her home at once and hurried back before anyone woke.
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 Third-Rank Middle Captain refers to a middle captain of the Palace Guards holding the third rank, a cousin of the prince. Avoiding a direction meant moving to another place for the night in order to steer clear of a direction deemed unlucky by the art of yin and yang; here it lasted forty-five days.
On the morning after spending the night in the carriage at that lodging and seeing her home, the prince sent this poem.
Izumi Shikibu replied with "Sono yo yori waga mi no ue wa shirareneba suzuro ni aranu tabine o zo suru." Learning of the prince's deep, almost unworthy devotion, she felt there was no reason to be stubborn, and resolved to go to his residence.
The opening lines mean "in the dream of waking from the night we slept together," and the third line "having grown used to it," with an emphatic particle.
The lower verses mean "this morning I rose and left the village of Fushimi," where Fushimi is both a place in Yamashiro and "lying and seeing" dreams, sealed by an emphatic construction. He describes their night in an unfamiliar lodging as a dreamlike tryst, calls the place the village of "lying and dreaming," and mourns their parting at dawn.
- Author
- Prince Atsumichi
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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Momijiba no mi ni kuru made mo chirazaraba takase no fune no ikaga kogaren
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Sono yo yori waga mi no ue wa shirareneba suzuro ni aranu tabine o zo suru