Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 20
wabinurebaima hata onajiNaniwa narumi o tsukushite moawamu to zo omou
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In dire distress, our reputation tossed about like a channel buoy at Naniwa -as it doesn't make a difference anymore, I must see you again!

Prince Motoyoshi (890-943)
[Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka (Photo Ad Blankestijn)]

A passionate love poem that can be read in two ways: "I want to meet you, even if it costs me my life," or "I want to meet you, as it doesn't make a difference anymore - our reputation is anyway ruined!"

The poet, Prince Motoyoshi (Motoyoshi Shinno) was the eldest son of Emperor Yozei (poem 13). In the Tales of Yamato (Yamato Monogatari, mid-tenth c.) he appears as a suave and famous lover. In the Gosenshu (951) and other anthologies he has twenty poems. The present poem has an interesting head-note in the Gosenshu: "Sent to the Kyogoku Lady of the Wardrobe after their affair had come out." The lady in question was Fujiwara no Hoshi, daughter of Tokihira, and concubine in the service of Emperor Uda whom she bore three sons. But she also had an affair with Motoyoshi which became public knowledge. To have a relation with one of the wives of the Emperor was a form of sacrilege - as is shown in the Genji, where Genji makes the Emperor's wife Fujitsubo (who was also his stepmother) pregnant with a son, such relations could well break up the "unbroken line" of Imperial succession! Piqu...