Kokinshu #556-557

Written on the text of a sermon by the priest Shinsei at a memorial service at Lower lzumo Temple, and sent to Ono no Komachi.

    Ah, these white jewels
I cannot hold in my sleeve
    though I wrap them up
are teardrops falling from eyes
that cannot see that person.

—8 January 2011

Reply.

    They're foolish indeed,
those teardrops that only form
    beads upon a sleeve.
Mine are a rushing torrent
that I cannot dam up!

—8 January 2011

Originals by Abe no Kiyoyuki and Ono no Komachi. Kiyoyuki (825-900) apparently spent most of his time until around 871 in the capital, after which he served in various provincial posts and governancies. He has one other poem in the Kokinshu. The Lower Izumo Temple was on the banks of the Kamo River, in the hills east of Kyoto. The sermon was possibly on a parable from the Lotus Sutra about a person (the Buddha) who attaches a priceless jewel (enlightenment) to the robe of a drunkard (mankind), who doesn't see it and dies for its lack. Kiyoyuki is hinting, of course, that he cannot see his lover. As for Komachi's poem, have I mentioned before how Heian women poets all seem to be masters of arch sarcasm? To bring out the archness (and to make it sound like English and not Translationese), I played with the syntax of the first sentence.


tsutsumedomo
sode ni tamaranu
shiratama wa
hito o minu me no
namida narikeri

orokanaru
namida zo sode ni
tama wa nasu
ware wa sekiaezu
tagitsu se nareba

---L.