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
− Master of the Left Capital Office, Michimasa
左京大夫道雅 Sakyō no Daibu Michimasa
748 | I have heard, beyond the meeting hill of Afusaka* lies the road to Azuma, − the East, but mine is the Barrier of Tsukushi, of the heart at unease. *pronounced as Ōsaka | ||
| 逢坂は | Afusaka wa | |
東路とこそ | Azuma-chi to koso | ||
聞きしかど | kikishikado | ||
心づくしの | kokoro-zukushi no | ||
関にぞありける | seki ni zo arikeru | ||
749 | Scared leaves on garlands of mulberry cords, for those gods − as if you were brought back to those days, the moments now are quite the same!
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| さかき葉の | Sakakiba no | |
ゆふしでかけし | yūshide kakeshi | ||
その神に | sono kami ni | ||
をしかへしても | oshikaeshite mo | ||
似たるころかな | nitaru koro kana | ||
750 | Now I wish merely for a way to tell you not by hearsay, face to face, that I shall give up my thoughts of you.
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| いまはたゞ | Ima wa tada | |
思ひたえなん | omoitaenan | ||
とばかりを | to bakari wo | ||
人づてならで | hito-zute narade | ||
いふよしもがな | ifu yoshi mogana | ||
Also tied to the same place
751 | Is the Bridge of severed cords, the Odae in Michinoku such? Trodden and untrodden, − letters read and not, − puzzling my heart.
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| みちのくの | Michinoku no | |
| 緒絶の橋や | Odae no hashi ya | |
| これならん | kore naran | |
| ふみみふまずみ | fumi mi fumazu mi | |
| 心まどはす | kokoro madowasu | |
All four poems were included together in Goshūishū 後拾遺集 (Later Collection of Gleanings; 1086) and recount the end a brief romantic relationship between Fujiwara no Michimasa 藤原道雅 (992−1054) and Imperial Princess Tōshi (also read as Masako; 当子内親王 Tōshi [Masako] Naishinnō; 1001−1023), first daughter of Emperor Sanjō (三条天皇 Sanjō tennō; 976−1017), who served as the Ise 伊勢 High Priestess (斎王 saiō or more colloquially 斎宮 saigū) between 1012 and 1016. Their affair lasted from late 1016, when the princess came back to the capital, to the fourth month of the first year of Kannin 寛仁 (1017), when her father found out about the affair and put an end to it.
Translation and notes by the blog author.