Empress Atsuko acted as stepmother to Prince Atsukimi 敦仁, the future Emperor Daigo 醍醐天皇 (885-930; r. 897-930), after the death of his real mother Inshi 胤子 on the 30th Day of the Sixth Month 896. Given that Atsukimi took the throne the following year, these poems must have been composed in the second half of 896 or early 897.
When Her Majesty, the Empress, was known as the Consort who was Mother to the Crown Prince, she selected topics and ordered Ise to compose poems for a folding screen as follows:
There was a picture of a man visiting a woman and conversing with her. The man, using the pretext of plum blossom to begin a conversation with the lady, says:
見し人にまたもやあふと梅の花咲きしあたりに行かぬ日ぞなき
| misi Fito ni mata mo ya aFu to mume no Fana sakisi atari ni yukanu Fi zo naki |
The maid I glimpsed, I wonder, may I meet her more? Plum blossom Bloomed around about Where the sun does ever shine. |
There was a man with whom she had secretly become close, but when word began to leak out, she put some beads into a box for a man’s cap and strung them together, saying:
たきつ瀬と名の流るれば玉の緒のあひ見しほどをくらべつるかな
| takituse to na no nagarureba tama no wo no aFimisi Fodo wo kurabeturu kana |
As a cataract’s roar Do our names flow out; Though to this thread of beads Could our meeting Be compared… |
Sent to a lady she had known long ago, who had entered service at the palace.
山河のおとにのみきくももしきを身をはやながら見るよしもがな
| yamagaFa no oto ni nomi kiku momosiki wo mi wo Faya nagara miru yosi mo gana |
A mountain brook Babbling is all I hear Over the many-stoned palace Swift as the current would I return to the days I saw it-how I wish it could be so! |
Ise
伊勢
When she was asked to compose a poem by Her Majesty, she wrote this inside a scroll and sent it to her.
山河のおとにのみきくももしきを身をはやながら見るよしもがな
| yamagaFa no oto ni nomi kiku momosiki wo mi wo Faya nagara miru yosi mo gana |
A mountain brook Babbling is all I hear Over the many-stoned palace Swift as the current would I return to the days I saw it-how I wish it could be so! |
Ise
伊勢