Minister of the Right, who rebuilt the ruins of Former Middle Counselor Teika’s house in Saga, would sometimes go there and on twentieth of eight month, on death anniversary of Lord Teika, he ordered Buddhist services and invited to compose poems. Recalling autumn...
− Tamesuke
為相
Meeting at long last,
on the eighth month of autumn,
on the twentieth day,
even still, grieving for one unseen,
sleeves are wet with tears.
めぐりあふ | meguriau |
秋のはつきの | aki no hatsuki no |
はつかにも | hatsuka ni mo |
見ぬ世をとへば | munu yo wo toeba |
袖ぞ露けき | sode zo tsuyukeki |
The poem was composed on Fujiwara no Teika’s 藤原定家 (1162−1241) death anniversary (20th day of Eighth Lunar month, which was considered autumn) by Reizei Tamesuke 冷泉為相 (1263−1328), Teika’s grandson born over twenty years after Teika’s passing.
The poem itself is not particularly exceptional but its headnote in the fourteenth imperial collection Gyokuyōwakashū 玉葉和歌集 (shortedned as Gyokuyōshū 玉葉集, Collection of Jeweled Leaves; 1312) is of some value, for it suggests that Minister of the Right (右大臣 Udaijin), identified as Nijō Michihira 二条道平 (1287−1335), was in possession of Teika’s old villa in Saga − the same villa that is said to had been decorated with poems collected in Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The detail itself is minor but in a largely unclear history of Teika’s villa, it is nevertheless valuable.
* Gyokuyōshū was commissioned by Retired Emperor Fushimi (伏見院 Fushimi-in; 1265−1317) and compiled by Teikas’ great-grandson and Tamesuke’s nephew Kyōgoku Tamekane 京極為兼 (1254−1332).