今はただ | ima wa tada |
思ひ絶えなむ | omoitaenan |
とばかりを | to bakari wo |
人づてならで | hito-zute narade |
言ふよしもがな | ifu yoshi mogana |
Fujiwara no Michimasa
Fujiwara no Michimasa 藤原道雅 (992−1054) was a descendant of the most prominent so-called Kujō 九条 branch of Fujiwara 藤原clan and belonged to the family of Middle Chancellor (中関白 Naka no kanpaku) Fujiwara no Michitaka 藤原道隆 (953−995). Michitaka and his wife Takashina no Kishi [Takako] 高階貴子 (?−996; Hyakunin Isshu 54) were Michimasa’s grandparents, and their first son Fujiwara no Korechika 藤原伊周 (974−1010) was his father, while Empress Teishi (born Fujiwara no Teishi 藤原定子, also pronounced as Sadako; 976−1000) was his aunt.
Michimasa was Korechika’s first son and had fate turned his way, he would could have been at the pinnacle of power, but when Michimasa was still a mere child, his grandfather’s death in 995 and his father’s banishment from the capital soon after led to the eventual downfall of the Family of the Middle Chancellor (中関白家 Naka no kanpaku ke). Although in 1008 Michimasa’s father Korechika was granted the title of Honorary Grand Minister (Gidō Sanshi 儀同三司), by then the lineage was out of power, and so Michimasa was left to pick up the pieces.
From around the time Korechika was granted the title of Honorary Grand Minister, Michimasa served in the Inner Palace Guards, first as Middle Captain of Right Division 右近衛中将 (ukon’e chūjō), and later as Middle Captain of Left Division (左近衛中将 sakon’e chūjō). While serving in the latter position, he was briefly promoted to the position of Head Chamberlain (蔵人頭 kurōdo no tō) − a stepping stone to higher positions − and reached Junior Third Rank (従三位 jusanmi).
Around the same time he had a brief love affair with Imperial Princess Tōshi (also read as Masako, although this Japanese pronunciation is uncertain; 当子内親王 Tōshi [Masako] Naishinnō; 1001−1023). The princess was the first daughter of Emperor Sanjō (三条天皇 Sanjō tennō; 976−1017, reigned 1011−1016; Hyakunin Isshu 68) and following her father’s abdication had just come back to the capital after serving as the High Priestess of Ise (伊勢斎王 Ise no saiō or more colloquially 伊勢斎宮 Ise no saigū). But Michimasa’s standing was not high enough to allow him to wed an imperial princess, let alone the former saigū, thus when the affair was discovered a few months later, Retired Emperor Sanjō (三条院 Sanjō-in) was outraged and the lovers were forever separated. The princess soon became a nun and a few years later passed away.
Michimasa lived on but never moved beyond positions he held during the affair with the princess. About ten years later other disturbing matters led to demotions and he ended his career as the Master of the Left Capital Office (左京大夫 Sakyō no daibu) − a position given to officials of Junior Fourth Rank (従四位 jushi’i).
He spent his late years in elegant retirement, composing poetry and enjoying other artistic pastimes. Although he only has six poems in imperial collections, five of which are in Goshūishū 後拾遺集 (Later Collection of Gleanings; 1086), he was nevertheless selected by Fujiwara no Norikane 藤原範兼 (1107−1165) as one of Late Classical Thirty−Six Poetic Immortals (中古三十六歌仙 Chūko sanjūrokkasen). And so was his daughter, known as Jōtomon’in no chūjo 上東門院中将 (dates unknown), who served Empress Shōshi (born Fujiwara no Shōshi [or Akiko] 藤原彰子 988–1074), by then known as Jōtōmon-in 上東門院.
I only wish for a way
to tell you in person
Fujiwara no Michimasa was not a prolific poet but of his few surviving poems, the ones composed for Princess Tōshi when they were forced to separate have come to be regarded as compositions of exceptional quality. The Hyakunin Isshu poem is one of those poems, which were originally included as a sort of short four-poem sequence in the third book of love poems in Goshūishū (poems 748 to 751), all under the same headnote:
Composed when the emperor heard that he was secretly visiting a lady who had come back from serving as the High Priestess of Ise, and posted guards, so he became unable to visit even in secret.
Among those poems, the composition selected for the Hyakunin Isshu is the final farewel, imbued with a wish to have said it in person.
In the upper half of the poem (上の句 kami no ku) − ima wa tada / omoitaenan / to bakari wo, − both tada and bakari can mean only, as if asking only for one final farewell now (ima), when it has become impossible to meet. But tada also has a meaning of directly, in person, and thus can be taken as being connected and contrasted with hito-zute narade of the fourth line. Hito-zute means through an intermediary, and narade is a negation, therefore rendering the line to not through an intermediary. Together with the last line − ifu (to say) yoshi (a way) mogana (if only there was.../ I wish for), − the lower half (下の句 shimo no ku) comes together into: I wish for a way to say not through an intermediary.
And as for what the poet wishes to say in person, he states it in the especially heartbreaking second line, omoitaenan. Omoitayu (in ren’yōkei 連用形 or continuative form, omoitae) very literally means to stop/cut thoughts, therefore to give up thoughts on, to give up. It is followed by auxiliary verb nu (in mizenkei 未然形 or imperfective form, na), indicating certainty, and auxiliary mu (pronounced as n), showing intention, thus rendering the line to: I will surely give up my thoughts of you.
Now I wish
merely for a way
to tell you
not by hearsay, face to face,
that I will surely give up my thoughts of you.
The poem is painfully aware of the attainable wishes of its creator, and thus it is an inevitable farewell to a person Michimasa seems to have loved dearly.
Michimasa’s poems for Tōshi have been preserved in various collections, Goshūishū being just one of them, but they are also found in Eiga monogatari 栄花物語 (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes; between 1028 and 1107), where story of Michimasa and Tōshi is also told in detail greater than any kotobagaki 詞書 (headnote) can.