Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 58 (Daini no Sanmi)

 Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 58

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)

the wind sighs "so..."
in Ina's bamboo-grass
near Arima Mountain,
and "so" it is: you may be worried,
but I will never forget you

Arimayama
Ina no sasawara
kaze fukeba
ide soyo hito o
wasure ya wa suru

ありま山
猪名の笹原
風吹けば
いでそよ人を
忘れやはする

Daini no Sanmi 大弐三位 (999-c. 1082)

[Mt Oya near the River Ina]

The head note says that this poem was addressed to a lover who had grown distant, but instead had accused the poet that her feelings for him had changed. The poet gives a witty reply to this insecure lover.

Notes

• Arima: Mt Arima, near what is now the famous Arima Onsen in the northern part of Kobe.
• Ina no sasahara: the field of bamboo grass at the banks of the Ina River (in Hyogo prefecture). Although Mt Arima and the Ina River are quite a distance apart and unconnected, in poetry they were normally used together as one utamakura.
  
• The first half of the poem (until and including "kaze fukeba") is a preface (jo) to introduce the wordplay "soyo".
• "Soyosoyo" is onomatopoeia for the rustling of the wind, but "so yo!" by itself can also mean "That is so!" In other words, the poet says that she is the one who is uncertain about his feelings - not the other way around. She emphasizes that she, on the other hand, is very steadfast.
• ide so yo: "ide" is "well...". "so yo" is "sore ya" - pointing at what the man has said.
  
• wasure ya wa suru: "could I ever forget?" "ya" and "wa" here indicate a rhetorical question.
• Joshua Mostow (Pictures of the Heart) mentions the difference between prefaces which have a semantically meaningful relation with what follows (called ushin, "with heart") and those that are merely wordplay (called mushin, "without heart"). The preface in this poem can be both. The way I have translated it, by bringing in the word "steadfast", is according to the first ushin type. A mushin translation would only say in the last two lines: "It is so - how could I ever forget you?" In English it is impossible to bring in the "soyo" sound of the wind, so this second translation is not very attractive (Peter MacMillan in his Penguin translation of the One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, tries to solve this by having the wind whisper the poet's statement of love, but personification of natural phenomena is very unusual in Japanese poetry and strikes me as too Western).
  
  

[Empress Shoshi and son]

The Poet

Daini no Sanmi was the daughter of Murasaki Shikibu (Poem 57) and Fujiwara no Nobutaka. Her given name was Fujiwara no Kenshi. In 1017, she joined the court and served as a lady-in-waiting for Grand Empress Dowager Shoshi, the mother of Emperor Go-Ichijo. In this period, she seems to have had various affairs (one with Fujiwara no Sadayori of Poem 64) before she married Kanetaka, the second son of the Regent Michikane. In 1025 she became the wet-nurse of Emperor Go-Reizei. In 1037 she married for the second time, now with Takashina no Nariaki, the Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu. When Emperor Go-Reizei ascended to the throne in 1054, she was promoted to the Third Rank (Sanmi) - indicating a very successful career at court. Thirty-seven of her poems have been included in the Goshuishu and other imperial collections and her personal poetry collection is also extant. Some scholars have attributed the final ten chapters of her mother's magnum opus, The Tale of Genji, to her, but this theory is now generally rejected.

Visiting

I feel tempted to suggest Arima Onsen here, but note that there is really nothing that connects it with this poem... (Read more about Arima Onsen at this blog).

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).

    Illustration: Wikimedia Commons

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