Sorry for the lengthy hiatus everyone. Been a long couple of weeks, but I am excited to post this poem in honor of women poets this month, and timely because of the coming of spring:
| Japanese | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| いにしへの | Inishie no | The eight-petalled cherries |
| 奈良の都の | Nara no miyako no | from the Nara capital |
| 八重桜 | Yae-zakura | of the ancient past |
| けふ九重に | Kyo kokonoe ni | today nine layers thick |
| にほひぬるかな | Nioi nuru kana | have bloomed within your court! |
Isé no Tayū (伊勢大輔, dates unknown), also known in English as “Lady Ise” was another lady in waiting for Empress Shoshi, as was Lady Murasaki (poem 57) and Lady Izumi (poem 56), but was the newbie apparently.
According to Lady Ise’s own diary, she had to present a poem on the fly to the Bishop from the ancient capital of Nara and its Buddhist institutions, who had brought a lovely eight-petaled cherry blossom as a gift. This variety of cherry blossom is known as yae-zakura (八重桜) in Japanese. Further, the capitol of Japan had moved to Kyoto centuries earlier, but people in Kyoto still looked back to Nara at times for nostalgic reasons. Empress Shoshi’s father, Fujiwara no Michinaga (the same one mentioned in Lady Murasaki’s diary) had asked Lady Murasaki to compose the poem, but for reasons not understood, she deferred to Lady Ise because she was new.
Thankfully, her poem was a success. As Professor Mostow notes, it does a really nice job balancing the “ancient” with the modern, and the eight petals of the blossom with the metaphorical nine-layers of the Imperial court.
No wonder she made the inner-circle of Empress Shoshi. 😌
Happy Spring everyone!
P.S. Nara is a pretty awesome place to visit in Japan, definitely recommend.
P.P.S. Featured photo is of cherry blossoms at the University of Washington in 2022, taken by me
The Hyakunin Isshu 