Episode 57

Long ago, a man had a secret love. He was very sad because the woman he loved did not care about him. He sent her a poem.

恋ひわびぬ海人の刈る藻に宿るてふ
　　我から身をもくだきつるかな
I have lost all my strength because I love you.
Like seaweed broken by the hands of a fisherman,
I feel like I’ve broken myself.

Episode 58

Long ago, a clever and flirty man built a house in a place called Nagaoka.

Next door lived a royal princess and many beautiful women. One day, the women saw the man trying to harvest rice. They thought, “How poetic!” and went to see him.

But the man got shy and ran inside to hide.

One of the women said a poem:

荒れにけりあはれいく世の宿なれや
　　　住みけむ人のおとづれもせぬ
This house is so old and messy.
I wonder how many people have lived here.
And the person living here won’t even answer us.

The women stayed around the house, looking around.

Then the man replied with his own poem:

葎おひて荒れたる宿のうれたきは
　　かりにも鬼の集くなり
This house is full of weeds and looks so lonely.
And now it’s filled with noisy demons—
even though I’m just trying to harvest rice!

He gave the poem to the woman. The women realized they had lost the game of wit.

So they joked, “Well then, maybe we’ll just pick up the leftover rice.”

The man answered with another poem:

うちわびて落穂ひろふときかませば
　　我も田面にゆかましものを
If you’re picking up leftover rice because you’re sad,
I would have come to help you in the fields.

 

Explanation:

These poems were just jokes.
The man was having fun with his cousins, the princesses.

 

Episode 59

Long ago, a man was tired of living in the capital city of Kyoto. He wanted to live in the quiet eastern mountains. So he wrote this poem:

住わびぬ今はかぎりと山里に
　　　　身をかくすべき宿をもとめてむ
I can’t stay in the city anymore.
This is the end.
I’ll go live in the mountains,
and hide myself away.

Later, the man became very sick and died. But when someone splashed water on his face, he suddenly came back to life and said:

わがうへに露ぞおくなる天の河
　　　　　と渡る船のかいのしづくか
Drops of water fall on me—
Are they from the Milky Way above?
Or maybe drops from the oars of a boat
crossing the river of heaven?

 

Episode 60

Long ago, there was a man. He worked at the Imperial Court and was always busy. At that time, he was not kind or faithful to his wife.

One day, a man told the wife, “I will truly love you.” So she left her husband and moved to another land with that man.

Later, the husband was sent as a messenger to Usa Shrine. In one land, he was told, “The wife of a local official looks just like your old wife.”

He said,

“Let that woman bring me a sake cup.
If she doesn’t, I won’t drink.”

So the woman—his former wife—brought him the cup.
Then he picked up a fruit from the table. It was a tachibana orange. He smelled it and said:

さつき待つ花橘の香をかげば
　　昔の人の袖の香ぞする
When I smell the flowers of the tachibana tree,
which bloom in May,
I remember the sweet scent
of someone I once loved.

When the woman heard this, she realized:
“This is my old husband.”

After that, she became a nun and went to live quietly in a mountain temple.

Episode 61

Long ago, a man traveled all the way to Tsukushi (in Kyushu).

Someone behind a bamboo screen saw him and whispered,
“That man is known for being a romantic.”

The man heard it and wrote this poem:

そめ河を渡らむ人のいかでかは
　　　色になるてふことのなからむ
If someone tries to cross the Some River,
how could they not get dyed by its color?
Everyone gets dyed in love, just like that.

(The “Some River” sounds like “to dye,” and is a pun.)

The woman replied with her own poem:

名にしおはゞあだにぞあるべきたはれ島
　　　　浪のぬれ衣着るといふなり
If Tahare Island is really like its name,
then it must be full of lies.
People say it wears a "wet robe" from the waves
just like that, the Some River might not really dye anyone.

 

Episode 62

Long ago, there was a woman whose husband had not visited her for many years.

Maybe she wasn’t very wise, because she believed some careless person’s words.
In the end, she became a servant for someone in the countryside.

One day, she was serving food at a dinner, and her former husband saw her.
He asked the host,
“Please send that woman to me tonight.”

So the host sent her to him.
The man said,
“Have you forgotten me?”

Then he recited a poem:

いにしへのにほひはいづら桜花
　　　こけるからともなりにけるかな
Where has your old beauty gone,
like the cherry blossoms?
You’ve faded like a branch
with no flowers left.

The woman felt very ashamed. She didn’t answer.
The man said, “Why don’t you say something?”

The woman replied:
“I can’t see.
Tears are falling, and I can’t speak.”

Then she recited her own poem:

これやこの我にあふみをのがれつゝ
　　　年月ふれどまさり顔なき
So this is the man
who once ran away from me in Omi.
All these years have passed,
but now he looks even worse than before.

The man felt sorry and gave her his robe.
But the woman threw it away and ran off.

No one knows which direction she went.

Episode 63

 

Long ago, there was a woman who understood love very well.
She often thought, “I hope I can meet a kind and caring man someday.”

But she had no chance to say this to anyone.
So, one day, she made up a pretend dream story and told it to her three children.

The two older children didn’t care. They just gave short answers and ignored her.
But the youngest son listened kindly and said, “I’m sure a wonderful man will come for you!”
This made the woman very happy.

The youngest son thought to himself,
“Other people are not kind to her. I want her to meet Lord Zaigo Chūjō. He is gentle and noble.”

Later, the boy heard that Lord Zaigo was out hunting nearby.
So the youngest son went to find him.

On the road, he stopped Lord Zaigo’s horse and said,
“My mother is a good woman, and she hopes to meet someone like you.”

Lord Zaigo felt sorry for the woman.
He went to visit her, and that night, he stayed with her.

But after that, Lord Zaigo didn’t come back again.

The woman missed him and went to his house.
She watched from behind a tree, hoping to see him.

Lord Zaigo saw her from far away and said:

百歳に一歳たらぬつくも髪
　　　われを恋ふらしおもかげに見ゆ
That old woman with long gray hair,
who looks almost one hundred years old,
seems to love me.
I can see her image in my mind.

The woman saw that he was about to go out, so she rushed back home.
She got scratched by thorns and bushes along the way.
She lay down on her bed, tired and sad.

Lord Zaigo followed her secretly.
He looked into her house and saw her lying there, crying.

She said:

さむしろに衣かたしき今宵もや
　　　恋しき人に逢はでのみ寝む
Again tonight, I lay out my clothes
on this cold straw mat.
I will sleep alone,
without seeing the one I love.

Lord Zaigo felt sorry for her again.
So that night, he stayed with her once more.

At the end, the story says:
Usually, people only love the ones they already like.
But this woman had a special heart.
She could care for anyone—whether they loved her back or not.

Episode 64

Long ago, there was a man.
He loved a woman.
But he didn’t even secretly meet her.
He didn’t know where she was.
He started to wonder about her.
So he wrote a poem:

吹く風にわが身をなさば玉すだれ
　　　ひまもとめつゝ入るべきものを
If I could become the wind,
I would find the little spaces
in your bamboo curtain.
I would slip through and come to you.

The woman read the poem.
She answered with a poem of her own:

とりとめぬ風にはありとも玉すだれ
　　　誰が許さばかひもとむべき
Even if you were the wind,
something we cannot hold,
who gave you permission
to search through my curtain?

 

Explanation:

Only very special men—those with a deep relationship—were allowed to go behind the bamboo curtain.

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All the illustrations are from illustAC. I have a paid membership and follow their rules, so there are no copyright problems.
The writing is my own English translation of a Japanese story from the 10th century.
Please do not copy or use it.