Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 49
Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
like the watch fire of the guards
at the palace gates,
at night, flaming,
at day, exhausted,
so is my love for her
mikakimori
eji no taku hi no
yoru wa moe
hiru wa kietsutsu
mono o koso omoe
みかき守
衛士のたく火の
夜はもえ
昼は消えつつ
物をこそおもへ
Onakatomi no Yoshinobu 大中臣能宣 (921-991)
Just as the watch fires lighted by the guards at the palace gates burn at night and fade by day, so burns the poet's heart at night, but in the daytime his love is smothered in grief.
Traditionally,
there are two ways of reading this poem. The normal one is to read
"kie" as "kie-iru", to be overcome with grief. The other one is that the
poet hides his love from people's eyes during the day (quite possible
in Heian times!). The poem is generally praised for the strong image of
the guard's fires with which it starts in the first two lines.
Notes
- "mikakimori": palace guard
- "eji": "guard, yeoman
- "kie": to go out, but here usually interpreted as "kie-iru, "to be overcome with grief"
- "hi", fire, is a kakekotoba (pun) which again appears in "omohi", love.
[Yoshinobu by Kano Naonobu]
The poet
Lord (Ason) Onakatomi no Yoshinobu (921–991) was one of the "Five Men of the Pear Chamber" (nashi-tsubo no gonin) who edited the Gosenshu. He was the grandfather of Ise no Tayu (Poem 61). He has 125 poems in imperial anthologies as well as a self-edited collection of poetry. But as the present poem does not appear in that last collection, and in the Kokin Rokujo where it appears is given as "anonymous," it may in fact not be by Yoshinobu.
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).
Photo/illustration from Wikimedia Commons
Hyakunin Isshu Index