This is another autumn-themed poem, but with an interesting story behind it:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
ちぎりをきし	Chigiri okishi	Depending with my life
させもがつゆを	Sasemo ga tsuyu wo	on promises that fell thick
命にて	Inochi ni te	as dew on sasemo plants—
あはわれことしの	Aware kotoshi no	alas! the autumn of this year too
秋もいぬめり	Aki mo inumeri	seems to be passing.

The author of the poem, Fujiwara no Mototoshi (藤原基俊, 1060 – 1142), was a leading poet of the famous Insei Period of Japanese history, along with his contemporary Toshiyori (poem 74), but according to my new book, was never particularly successful as a bureaucrat.

According to both Professor Mostow and my new book, this poem was written as a complaint to the former Chancellor and Buddhist lay-novice (upasaka) named Tadamichi, the same man who composed poem 76.

Mototoshi’s complaint is that his son, better known as Bishop Kōkaku of Kofukuji Temple, wanted to preside over the annual lecture on the Vimalakirti Sutra, an important Buddhist text. This occasion was known as the yuima-e (維摩会) and was rather prestigious within the bureaucratic monastic system of the time. Being the chosen lecturer would have fast-tracked Mototoshi’s son to other opportunities. In spite of Tadamichi’s promises to help, year after year Mototoshi’s son was passed up, and so Mototoshi sent this poem as a complaint.

The term sasemo is another way of saying sashimo, which in modern Japanese is the yomogi (ヨモギ) plant. In English, this is better known as the Japanese mugwort, pictured above. We saw the use of mugwort as well back in poem 51, though for a very different reason. The featured photo above shows Japanese Mugwort (yomogi, ヨモギ) leaves, photo by Sphl, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sasemo plants inspired an earlier, more Buddhist poem, which Mototoshi alludes to:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
なお頼め	Nao tanome	Still rely on me!
しめぢが原の	Shimeji ga hara no	for I will help those of
させも草	Sasemo-gusa	this world for as long
わが世の中に	Wa ga yo no naka ni	as there are sasemo-plants
あらむ限りは	Aramu kagiri wa	in the fields of Shimeji

This was attributed to Kannon, the Buddhist deity (bodhisattva) of compassion who promised to rescue all beings in the world. This poem was in the Shinkokin wakashū, number 1917.

Thanks to Professor Mostow for the double-translation this week. If you haven’t already, definitely show him some love and check out his excellent translations. 🙂