Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 42 (Kiyohara no Motosuke)

 Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 42

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)


we pledged ourselves!
while wringing the tears
from each other's sleeves:
"never will the waves wash over
the Pine Hill of Sue"

chigiriki na
katami ni sode wo
shiboritsutsu
Sue no Matsuyama
nami kosaji to wa

ちぎりきな
かたみに袖を
しぼりつつ
末の松山
波こさじとは

Kiyohara no Motosuke 清原元輔 (908-990)

[Sue no Matsuyama]

"We made a solemn promise, while many times over wringing the tears from both our sleeves, that, in the same way as that waves will never wash over the Pine Hill of Sue, whatever happened, our hearts would never change."

The head-note to this poem reads: "Written by proxy for a man whose lover had turned cold to him." Sue no Matsuyama is a scenic spot consisting of small hill with pine trees in Tagajo, near Sendai. It became an utamakura used in pledges like here. It first appears in an anonymous poem in the Kokinshu (poem 1093):

to abandon you
a fickle heart
would I have
but sooner would waves wash over
the Pine Hill of Sue

kimi wo okite | adashi-gokoro wo | waga motoba | Sue no Matsuyama | nami mo koenan

The poem by Kiyohara no Motosuke clearly alludes to this.

In 1689, on his Oku no Hosomichi trip, Basho visited Sue no Matsuyama and he wrote: "On Sue no Matsuyama they built a temple with the name Matsushozan. The spaces between the pine trees were al covered by graves. As I realized that all pledges for everlasting love finally end up like this, my sadness increased. I then heard the vesper bell on Shiogama Bay."

[Kiyohara no Motosuke by Kano Yasunobu]

Notes

• chigiriki na: chigiru is "to promise, to pledge." -ki indicates the past tense; na is an exclamatory final particle. 
• katami-ni: "mutually"
• sode wo shiboritsutsu: "wringing out one's sleeves" means "crying" - the sleeves of one's robe had in this respect the same function as a handkerchief in modern times.
  
• -ji in the last line: a suffix which indicates negative intention ("I do not intend to") or - as here - negative conjecture ("probably not," "I think not"). The verb here is the same as the modern "koeru," "to cross over."
  

The Poet

Kiyohara no Motosuke was the grandson of Fukayabu (poem 36) and the father of Sei Shonagon (poem 62) and the compiler of the imperial poetry collection Gosenshu (see under poem 40). More than a hundred of his poems have been preserved in imperial anthologies.

[Kahi ("Waka poem stone") "Sue no Matsuyama"
on which the present poem has been inscribed]

The Gosen Wakashu (Gosenshu)

The Gosenshu (後撰和歌集, "Later Collection"), in 20 scrolls, containing 1,426 poems, was ordered in 951 by Emperor Murakami (r 946-967), and compiled by the "Five Men of the Pear Chamber" (Nashitsubo no Gonin): Onakatomi no Yoshinobu, Kiyohara no Motosuke, Minamoto no Shitagau, Ki no Tokibumi and Sakanoue no Mochiki. The exact date of completion is unknown, but is supposed to have been around 955. As the title "Later Collection" suggests, the anthology stands in the shadow of its predecessor, the Kokinshu, the intent being primarily to provide a supplement to the earlier work rather than a collection of new poetry. Thus, no poems by the compilers are included, and the 219 poets represented belong chiefly to the age of the Kokinshu, the late 9th and early 10th centuries. Interesting are the lengthy prose fictional settings (as narrated in headnotes and footnotes) for the poems. Moreover, the Gosenshu is dominated by the private exchanges between men and women of the court, with a special focus on love poetry. It also grants a much more prominent role to women poets.

Poems included in Hyakunin Isshu: 1, 10, 13, 20, 25, 37, 39 (total 7).

Visiting

Sue no Matsuyama is a scenic spot located on an independent small hill in Yawata, Tagajo City, Miyagi Prefecture. It has also been designated as one of the "Oku no hosomichi Scenic Spots". It is famous as an utamakura with the meaning that "the waves will never wash over the Pine Hill of Sue," used as in the above poem in an oath of eternal love. By the way, another utamakura, the "Rock in the Offing" ("Oki no Ishi," see poem 92) is located at the foot of the hill on the southwestern side.

By the way, in the kana-preface to the Kokinshu by Ki no Tsurayuki, the terrible Jogan Tsunami of 869 is called "Matsuyama no nami," "the wave of Pine Hill" - so no mean wave is meant here. It is interesting to note that (as the Japanese-language Wikipedia mentions in its article about Sue no Matsuyama) that when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, which caused extensive tsunami damage in the Tohoku region, the waves did not reach Sue no Matsuyama, although the surrounding urban areas were inundated by two meters. So it seems to be true...

The Kokinshu contains two poems about Sue no Matsuyama (including the one translated in the comments) and it soon became a famous utamakura, visited by Basho and many others as mentioned in the above.

Here is a link to Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/64dquAf9wPVoJqydA

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).

Photos/Illustration from Wikipedia

Hyakunin Isshu Index