Pesem regenta Ičidža

Besedilo

Pesem regenta Ičidža

He was also much given to amorous pursuits and took pleasure in the company of many women. Feeling that his rank made such affairs rather too conspicuous, he concealed his identity and called himself Toyokage, a junior official of the Treasury. Under this name he sent letters to women outside the court, wooing them and sometimes meeting them; yet everyone understood the truth and knew who he was. He began visiting the daughter of a distinguished nobleman, winning over her nurse and mother and keeping the affair from her father. When the father heard of it, however, he flew into a terrible rage, berating the mother and snapping his fingers in scorn as he bitterly reproached her. She protested that there was no such affair, then wrote to ask that the visits cease. When the mother sorrowfully explained the circumstances to him, he sent this poem: “Though secretly I hasten toward you, the years go by—why is the barrier of Meeting Hill so hard to cross?” She showed it to the father, who concluded that the rumors must indeed have been false, and composed this reply himself: “Since I am not a traveler passing to and fro upon the eastern road, when should I ever cross the barrier of Meeting Hill?” His collected poems say that Toyokage must surely have smiled when he read it. How amusing.