Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 62 (Sei Shonagon)

  Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 62

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)

the cock's cry
in the depth of night
may have deceived some
but the Barrier of Meeting Hill
will not let you through

yo o komete
tori no sorane wa
hakaru tomo
yo ni Osaka no
seki wa yurusaji
      
夜をこめて
鳥の空音は
はかるとも
よにあふさかの
関はゆるさじ

Sei Shonagon 清少納言 (c. 966 – 1017 or 1025)

[Sei Shonagon by Utagawa Kunisada]

Sei Shonagon is in the first place famous for the Pillow Book, in which the above brilliant poem has been included. She also tells the story behind the poem, which is necessary for a full understanding. It is an apt demonstration of her quick wit, something that was expected of court ladies.

The poem involves the courtier and famous calligrapher Yukinari, who served as Controller First Secretary. One day he came to the Empress' Office and stayed there talking until late at night. That is when he met Sei Shonagon, who worked as lady-in-waiting to Empress Teishi. Yukinari left that night with the words that he had to rush home as the next day he would have to stay all day in the palace because of an Imperial Abstinence.

The next morning a messenger brought Sei Shonagon several sheets of Koya paper as used by the Chamberlains in the Emperor's Private Office, on which Yukinari had written a very elegant and witty letter. "His heart was still full of memories of their meeting," he wrote, "and he had hoped he might stay until the morning, but the cock's crow had forced him to take his leave..." As lover's trysts always lasted until cock's crow at dawn, Yukinari was in fact pretending that he was her lover, who had spent the night with her until dawn - an impression that was quite contrary to the truth, as Sei Shonagon remarked in her Pillow Book.

Sei Shonagon therefore  curtly replied that it must have been a "false cock" by referring to a traditional Chinese story in which a fleeing prince, the Lord of Mengchang, has his attendants imitate a cock's crow in order to have the barrier gate of Hangu (that was closed at night) opened for him. In other words, Sei Shonagon playfully suggests that Yukinari's cock-crow was as untrue as the rest of his letter in which he shrewdly suggested that they had shared a night of love.

Yukinari immediately sent an answer: he wrote that they were not concerned with the barrier of Hangu (through which the Lord of Mengchang escaped), but with a far less distant barrier: the Barrier of Osaka, on the road to the East between Kyoto and Lake Biwa (see Poem 10 by Semimaru about the Osaka Barrier).

Upon which Sei Shonagon wrote him the above poem, adding as postscript that "the gatekeeper was a very shrewd man." So she gives Yukinari a clear, off-putting reply: you can try to fool people with your false cock cries in the middle of the night, but "my barrier" will remain closed to you!

This was not the end of the correspondence, for Yukinari now replied with a poem by his own hand:

Osaka, I have heard,
is a barrier
that can be freely crossed
no need here for the cock to crow
as it waits wide open

 

The Osaka Barrier is always open to travelers, is the answer of Yukinari (and he is right), but the innuendo here is not very flattering: he alludes to Sei Shonagon having many lovers, as her "gate" is always wide open.

Sei Shonagon didn't answer to this, so Yukinari concludes that his poem was too much for her. He also tells her that he has shown her letters and poem to the Empress and the senior courtiers. She thanks him for his high opinion of her, and answers that his letters and poem were so poor that out of consideration she has been careful not to show them to anyone. So far this instance of the quick wit of court lady Sei Shonagon.

Notes

• yo wo komete: as long as it is night, in the depth of night
• tori no sorane wa hakaru tomo: "sorane" is the false crying of the cock; "hakaru" is to deceive.
• yoni: decidedly
• seki wa yurusaji: will not let you through the Barrier
  
  

[Sei Shonagon by  Kobayashi Kiyochika]

The Poet

Sei Shonagon was a daughter of Fujiwara no Motosuke (Poem 42). She served Empress Teishi until the latter's death in the year 1000. She is best remembered for the witty Pillow Book (Makura no zoshi), in which she recorded the splendors of Teishi's court and the fruit of her own rich mind. She has only four poems in the Goshuishu and later imperial anthologies.

[Sennyuji]

Visiting

(1) The poetry stone with this poem stands in the grounds of Sennyuji Temple - Sei Shonagon's father, Kiyohara no Motosuke, had a cottage in this area, and the location is also close to the grave of Teishi (died 1000 CE), the Empress whom Sei Shonagon served. The monument can be found next to the Mizu-yakata, the small building housing the original "bubbling spring" of the temple. See my article about Sennyuji at this blog.
Access: Take the JR or Keihan Line to Tofukuji Station and walk 20 min. along Higashioji Street. Hours: 9:00-16:30, in winter 16:00.

(2) The Osaka Barrier is described in Poem 10, and also appears in Poem 25.


Translations of the Pillow Book: Sei Shōnagon & McKinney (translator), Meredith (2006), The Pillow Book, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44806-3

Sei Shōnagon & Morris (translator), Ivan (1971), The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44236-7. Originally published in 1967 by Columbia University Press.

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).

Ukiyo-e of Sei Shonagon: Wikimedia Commons. Photo Sennyuji own work.

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