The lady’s reply:
世に咲かぬものにありせば桜花人にあまねく告げざらましを
| yo ni sakanu mono ni ariseba sakurabana Fito ni amaneku tugezaramasi wo |
Never blooming in this world, Were it such a thing, A cherry blossom; To all and sundry It would be better not, to announce it so! |
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… |
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
Her Majesty’s reply:
呼ぶとしも聲は聞えで花薄しのびに招く袖も見ゆめり
| yobu to simo kowe Fa kikoede Fana susuki sinobi ni maneku sode mo miyumeri |
A calling Voice I cannot hear; yet The silvered grass fronds Secretly beckoning Sleeves do seem to me. |
Her Majesty, the Empress, had such a limitlessly refined nature, that there was no one in the world who was her equal. Ise’s chamber had a most beautiful garden planted before them and, in autumn, when she had returned to her dwelling for a while, Her Majesty wrote, ‘Why have you not returned yet? It seems that you will be so late in coming that the pine crickets before your chamber will have ceased to sing and the flowers will, no doubt, be past their best.’ Ise replied:
松虫も鳴きやみぬなる秋の野に誰よぶとてか花見にも來む
| matu musi mo nakiyaminu naru aki no no ni tare yobu tote ka Fanami ni mo komu |
The pining crickets Have ceased to sing In the autumn fields; Who calls from there, I wonder, Will she come to view the flowers… |