Minamoto no Ienaga Nikki: a year before <...> she had composed "Do not forget me / Even you, plum tree by the eaves!"
The death of Zensaiin [Shikishi Naishinnō] left all at a loss for words. As more and more die, the Way of Poetry declines; so one feels one must try all the harder.
A year before her death, at the time of 100-poem sequences, she had composed "Do not forget me / Even you, plum tree by the eaves!" And When the following year the tree at her Ōidono residence bloomed as if in sympathy, I could not help saying to myself “This year, at least…”
− Minamoto no Ienaga, Minamoto no Ienaga Nikki 源家長日記
(Diary of Minamoto no Ienaga)
Translated in Huey 2002, 87−88.
Minamoto no Ienaga 源家長 (1170−1234) in his memoir Minamoto no Ienaga Nikki 源家長日記 (Diary of Minamoto no Ienaga), remembering the years after the death of Princess Shokushi (式子内親王 Shokushi naishinnō; between 1149 and 1152−1201; her name can also be read as Shikishi or Noriko; her poem is included in Hyakunin Isshu as number 89).
The passage is translated by Robert N. Huey in The Making of Shinkokinshū, where he also provides incredibly detailed commentary of the passage, as well as further translation. In his commentary, Huey also offers translations of the poems referenced by Ienaga. I would like to introduce the translation of part of the passage here but as for the commentary, I will rephrase it and offer other translations of the poems to avoid quoting too large of a chunk. I will leave Huey’s commentary for those interested to check in full length, for which you shall see:
Huey, Robert N. 2002. The Making of Shinkokinshū, Harvard East Asian Monographs 208, Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press.
Commentary
“As more and more die” refers to the death of Jakuren 寂蓮 (1139–1202) (Huey 2002, 87, n4). Jakuren was appointed as one of the compilers of Shinkokinshū 新古今集 (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; 1205) but died long before its completion and just a couple of years after Shokushi. His poem is also included in the Hyakunin Isshu as number 89.
"Do not forget me / Even you, plum tree by the eaves!" (as translated by Huey)
Shinkokinshū 52
Composed for Shōji ninen in shodo hyakushu 正治二年院初度百首 (Retired Emperor’s [Gotoba’s] First Hundred-poem Sequences of the second year of Shōji era); this poem can also be found in and is quoted here from Shokushi's original hundred-poem sequence that Sato presents as Sequence C.
ながめつるけふはむかしになりぬとものきばのむめはわれをわするな
Nagametsuru kyō wa mukashi ni narinu tomo nokiba no mume wa ware wo wasuruna
Even when my watching you today becomes the past, plum near the eaves, do not forget me. (trans. Sato 1993, 76)
"This year, at least…" (as translated by Huey)
Kokinshū 832
Kamutsuke no Mineo [Composed after the burial of the Horikawa Chancellor at Fukakusayama]