A summer poem, when she presented a hundred poem sequence.
かへりこぬむかしをいまとおもひねの夢の枕ににほふ橘
kaerikonu mukashi o ima to omoine no yume no makura ni niou tachibana
Never to return is The past, but in the present It fills my sleepy thoughts A’dreaming on my pillow With the scent of orange blossom.[1]
Princess Shokushi
[1] An allusive variation on: Sent to a lady with whom he had once been intimate, after some years had passed. いにしへのしづのをだまき繰りかへし昔を今になすよしもがな inishie no / shizu no odamaki / kurikaeshi / mukashi o ima ni / nasu yoshi mogana ‘In times long gone / Thread upon a bobbin was / Wound back— / Just so, the present into the past / I wish we could make!’ It seems, though, that the lady thought nothing of it. (Ise monogatari 65)
na ni shi owaba sono kamiyama no aoigusa kakete mukashi o omoi’idenan
It’s all in the name:[i] This sacred hill’s Hollyhocks were Hung on that day, long ago, that I wish you would remember…[ii]
628
[i] This poem is built around a play-on-words: the ‘name’ of hollyhock, aoi 葵 or more precisely, afuhi as it was pronounced at the time Sanetomo was writing, was homophonous with afu hi 逢ふ日 (‘the day we met’). Thus, a more accurate paraphrase of the poem’s meaning would be: ‘Today is the Kamo Festival when “day-we-met” flowers are hung around. When you see them, I wish you would remember that day long ago…’
[ii] See: Composed on hollyhocks. いかなればそのかみ山のあふひぐさとしはふれどもふた葉なるらん ikanareba / sono kamiyama no / aoigusa / toshi wa furedomo / futaba naruran ‘Why is it that / Upon divine Kamo Hill / The hollyhocks / Though years do pass, / Have such twofold leaves?’ Kojijū (Shinkokinshū III: 183)
The scent of orange blossom incense on the breeze[i]
Left
ふくかぜに花たちばなぞにほふなるむかしのそでにあやまたれつつ
fuku kaze ni hanatachibana zo niou naru mukashi no sode ni ayamataretsutsu
With the gusting breeze Orange blossom’s Fragrance comes— For those sleeves of bygone days Do I ever mistake it…
13
Right
つねよりもことにもあるかなけふをまつはなたちばなのかぜのにほひは
tsune yori mo koto ni mo aru kana kyō o matsu hanatachibana no kaze no nioi wa
More than ever So special it is! For today have I awaited, Orange blossom’s Scented breeze…
14
In general, orange blossom is scented during early summer showers or has its fragrance carried on the evening breeze, so I wonder about the folk of bygone days: there’s nothing to compare it with, making the Left’s poem as hackneyed as one on Isonokami, yet there’s nothing special about it, like a weed growing under the eaves. The Right’s poem has ‘for today have I awaited’, which I think requires a reference to sweet-flags. My overall impression of both poems is that their conceptions are unclear.
haru ya aranu tsuki wa mishi yo no sora nagara nareshi mukashi no kage zo koishiki
Is this not that spring? The moon is as I beheld it that night Within the skies, yet I had grown accustomed, long ago, to Her face, so much more dear to me…
