KKS 42

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Text

初瀬はつせにまうづる毎ごとに宿りける人の家に久しく宿らで、程経て、後に至れりければ、かの家の主あるじ、「かく定さだかになん宿りはある」と言ひ出して侍りければ、そこに立てりける梅の花を折てよめる

When he made visits to Hatsuse, he stayed in a certain person's house, and he had not visited for a long time. After some time had passed he went there again, and the owner of the house said "This lodging has not changed," and [Tsurayuki] broke off a plum flower from a tree standing there, and read this

貫之

Ki no Tsurayuki

人はいさ心も知らず故郷は花ぞ昔の香に匂ひける

hito wa isa kokoro mo shira-zu furusato wa hana zo mukashi no ka ni nioi-keru

For people, well, I do not know their hearts In this old village It is the flowers' scent That smells the same as of old.

Notes

Hatsuse

This is the temple of Hasedera (長谷寺) in Nara, which was a common pilgrimage destination of the Heian upper class.

certain person

This may be a woman who Tsurayuki has had a relationship with, or it could be a male friend.

"This lodging has not changed"

The meaning of this seems to be "Why haven't you stayed here recently?"

Other sources:

• Shūka daitai | Hyakunin isshu

Analysis

This poem continues the group of poems on the scent of plums. The seasonal volumes of the KKS contain very few of these "poem tale"-like prefaces that involve narratives. In the Tsurayuki collection, the person in the house gives a response: "Even the flowers bloom with the same heart, and I would have you know the heart of the one who planted them."

The accusatory and even insulting tone of the poem may seem odd, but this sort of exchange is found throughout poetic collections and poem tale collections. The tone of the poem is not necessarily taken literally by the recipient, who understands the sending of any poem at all as a kind gesture. If the person in the house is a woman, then this follows the pattern of a typical love exchange where Tsurayuki suggests that the woman has been seeing other men. If the person in the house is a friend, Tsurayuki is responding to the host's accusatory question by turning the response back on the person.

Many commentators, from the earliest to the latest commentaries, take the poem as also expressing a general philosophical statement that the hearts of humans are changeable. If the overall tone of the poem is jocular, it may add to the sarcastic feel to allude to such a high-flown concept.

Several medieval commentaries give a legend connected with this poem. As one example, the Bishamondō kokinshūchū relates that Tsurayuki's father Funmoto lamented that he had no sons. On one visit to Hasedera, he saw in a dream Kannon telling him "I have given you a sutra," and later thought that Tsurayuki's birth was that "sutra". Therefore Tsurayuki would visit Hasedera every month in thanks. In this legend, the "house" is the residence of a priest on the grounds of the temple itself.

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