On a snowy day in the Second Month of Kenryaku 2 [March 1212], Senior Assistant Minister of Public Affairs Yukimitsu came to call at my house, saying he wanted to take a look at the scenery from a mountain retreat; many others were there, including Yukimura, Secretary of Yamajiro and we enjoyed ourselves late into the night with music and poetry. When it was time for him to return, I gifted Yukimitsu with a black horse and when I saw him the following day, I found a piece of paper tied to the horse’s mane, which read
この雪を分けて心の君にあればぬししる駒のためしをぞひく
kono yuki o wakete kokoro no kimi ni areba nushi shiru koma no tameshi o zo hiku
Through this snow To forge, the heart Had one, then A mount who knows his master well Is an example to follow!
kasugano no matsukasa dani mo nakariseba ame furu sato ni ware komashi ya wa
If on Kasuga Plain Even pinecones Were there not, then, To the rainswept ancient capital Why would I come at all?
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[1] This poem is included in Ise-shū (107) with the headnote ‘From the time of the Kasuga Poetry Match’, implying that this is Ise’s work, even if she is not identified as the poet in the text here.
[2] A minor variant of this poem occurs in Kokinshū (I: 14), attributed to Ōe no Chisato: 鶯の谷よりいづる声なくは春来ることを誰かしらまし uguisu no / tani yori izuru / koe naku wa / haru kuru koto o / tare ka shiramashi ‘If the bush-warbler / From the valleys / Did not sing his song, / That spring is coming / Would anyone realise at all?’; also Shinsen man’yōshū 261.
