朝ぼらけ | asaborake |
宇治の川霧 | Uji no kawagiri |
たえだえに | taedaeni |
あらはれわたる | araware-wataru |
瀬々の網代木 | seze no ajirogi |
Middle Counselor Sadayori
Fujiwara no Sadayori 藤原定頼 (995−1045) was a court noble and poet of mid-Heian period (平安時代 Heian jidai; 794−1192). Member of the Onomiya 小野宮 line of the influential Fujiwara 藤原 clan, he was the oldest son of the Shijō Major Counselor (四条大納言 Shijō dainagon) Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任 (966–1041; Hyakunin Isshu 55) and a lady who was granddaughter of Emperor Murakami (村上天皇 Murakami tennō; 924–967) and daughter of Imperial Prince Akihira (昭平親王 Akihira shinnō; 945–1013) but was otherwise only known as Mother of Sadayori (定頼母 Sadayori no haha; dates uncertain), which is how she is recorded in Goshūishū 後拾遺集 (Later Collection of Gleanings; 1086).
For a man of Sadayori’s lineage, his career was rather modest as he rose to the position of Provisional Middle Counselor (権中納言 gon chūnagon) and Senior Second Rank (正二位 shōnii). But it is perhaps unsurprising, as he was a son of Kintō, that Sadayori was talented in many elegant pursuits, including calligraphy and poetry.
Sadayori’s poetry was not constricted to only formal or social compositions. He composed at formal events like Jōtōmon-in Shōshi kikuawase 上東門院彰子菊合 (Chrysanthemum Matches of Jōtōmon-in Shōshi; 1032) and Kanpaku sadaijin Yorimichi utawase 関白左大臣頼通歌合 (Poetry Matches of Chancellor Minister of the Left Yorimichi; 1035), but also corresponded with famous poetesses Daini no Sanmi 大弐三位 (Fujiwara no Kenshi [Kataiko] 藤原賢子, 999?–?; Hyakunin Isshu 58) and Koshikibu no Naishi 小式部内侍 (?–1025; Hyakunin Isshu 60).
Sadayori was also known for his good looks and seems to have had numerous love affairs. Among his lovers was Yamato no Senji 大和宣旨 (dates uncertain) − a lady who divorced Fujiwara no Michimasa 藤原道雅 (992−1054; Hyakunin Isshu 63) and as a lady-in-waiting joined the salon of Empress Kenshi (born Fujiwara no Kenshi 藤原妍子, also pronounced as Kiyoko; 994−1027), consort of Emperor Sanjō (三条天皇 Sanjō tennō; 976−1017; Hyakunin Isshu 68). There was also poetess Sagami 相模 (998?−1061?; Hyakunin Isshu 65), who later went on to serve Emperor Ichijō’s (一条天皇 Ichijō tennō; 980−1011) first-born daughter Imperial Princess Shūshi (脩子内親王 Shūshi naishinnō; 996−1049), and there was also a daughter of Koshikibu no Naishi, known only as Mother of Priest Kōen (公円法師母 Kōen Hōshi no haha; dates uncertain).
Sadayori’s affairs seem to have been numerous, but in the end it is the poetry he is most famous for. His poems are collected in his personal collection Sadayori Shū 定頼集 (Collected Poems of Sadayori), which is also sometimes called Shijō Chūnagon Shū 四条中納言集 (Collected Poems of Middle Counselor of the Fourth Avenue). Forty five of his poems are in imperial collections starting with Goshūishū, and he is one of Fujiwara no Norikane’s 藤原範兼 (1107−1165) Late Classical Thirty−Six Poetic Immortals (中古三十六歌仙 Chūko sanjūrokkasen).
Daybreak,
river mists over Uji...
Perhaps contrary to what one may expect from Sadayori’s biography, his poem in the Hyakunin Isshu is a scenic winter composition originally included in Senzaishū 千載集 (Collection of a Thousand Years; 1187) with a headnote reading: composed when he went to Uji.
Uji 宇治, south-east of the capital that is now the city of Kyōto 京都, is associated with both Mount Uji (宇治山 Ujiyama), mentioned in the poem of Priest Kisen (喜撰法師 Kisen hōshi, dates unknown; Hyakunin Isshu 8) and Uji River (宇治川 Ujigawa) flowing nearby. Many nobles had their villas in Uji, and crossing the Uji River was also necessary on pilgrimages to Hatsuse 初瀬 that many undertook at the time.
Sadayori’s poem is a beautifully simple yet fascinating descriptive composition. Asaborake in the opening line indicates a “dawn” or “daybreak” in winter. The second line, Uji no kawagiri, means “river mists of Uji” and while it is a grammatically straightforward line, it leaves a strong impression once the image of Uji is firmly established in the reader’s mind.
This image of Uji is on one hand the aforementioned image of a pilgrimage road and villas of nobility, but on the other − an undeniably strong and impactful, heartbreaking image of the tragic love in Uji Chapters (宇治十帖 Uji jūjō) of Murasaki Shikibu’s 紫式部 (around 973 – 1014 or 1025; Hyakunin Isshu 57) The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 Genji monogatari), which by the time of Sadayori was already famous among the Heian nobility.
The third line, taedaeni, can be translated as “intermittently” and immediately leads to the fourth line, araware-wataru. This line combines two verbs − araware, the ren’yōkei 連用形 (continuative form) of arawaru (“to appear”), and wataru, in rentaikei 連体形 (attributive form), which implies an always continuous action. The closing line, seze no ajirogi, is a nominal ending (体言止め taigendome) and brings an image of “fish weirs of the shallows”. Here seze are “shallows” or “rapids”, as water runs quicker when shallow, and ajirogi can be translated as “fish weirs” or more precisely “fish-trap stakes”, used in Uji River in autumn and winter to catch seasonal fish.
This image of fish weirs in Uji River was familiar and fascinating to the Heian nobility. It can be found in a Man’yōshū 万葉集 (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves; around 759) poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro 柿本人麿 (dates uncertain; Hyakunin Isshu 3):
Man’yōshū 264 | ||
もののふに | mononofu no | Like the eighty warrior clans, |
八十宇治川の | yaso ujigawa no | so unknown the ways |
網代木に | ajirogi ni | of Uji river waves |
いさよふ波の | isayou nami no | wavering |
行くへ知らずも | yukue shirazu mo | at fish weirs. |
And in the aforementioned Uji Chapters of Genji:
From early in the Tenth Month he began letting fall remarks about the fish weirs at Uji and how they would be at their most interesting, and how Niou owed himself a look at the autumn leaves.
－ Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Chapter 47 “Trefoil Knots” (総角 Agemaki)
(Trans. Seidensticker 1992, 918−919)
Sadayori’s poem, mentioning the same fish weirs of Uji, immediately brings Hitomaro’s poem and The Tale of Genji to mind, but the image of fish weirs appearing in the intermittently clearing mist is nevertheless masterful and his own.
Nouns − asaborake (“dawn”), kawagiri (“river mist”), seze (“rapids”), ajirogi (“fish weirs”) − comprise almost half of the poem (fifteen syllables of thirty one) and give the poem a sense of stillness, in which, like the repetitions in taedaeni and seze, the mist clears here and there, to reveal the fish weirs:
Dayspring,
from the river mists over Uji
fragmentarily
emerging
fish weirs in the shallow rapids.
Whereas the images in the poem are not novel, Sadayori nevertheless paints them anew. The image he produces is seemingly still but as one continues looking at it, as one goes from one line to the next, a familiar and fascinating image of fish weirs − or maybe the heartbreak − at Uji reveals itself.
Notes
* I took some liberties to slightly modify the Crunchyroll translation from the Chihayafuru subtitles. Firstly, there were two versions of the beginning of this poem, so I went with “The hazy early morning mist...” instead of “The hazed early dawn mist”, as the former better reflects the long-shot nature of the two asaborake poems (Crunchyroll translation of asaborake ariake starts with “The hazy early morning light”), therefore the translation read The hazy early morning mist over Kawagiri River fades to reveal fishing nets in the shallows. But here I changed “Kawagiri river” to “Uji river”, as Uji is the famous river mentioned in the original and kawagiri simply means “river mist”.