Diaries of Court Ladies
Off Ishitsu, in the wild sea
The boat driven before the storm
Fades away and is seen no more.
The wild gusts drive the boat—
Into the wild sea she disappears—
Off Ishitsu!
I devoted myself in various ways for the World [her husband]. Even in serving at Court one had likewise to devote one's self unceasingly. What favor could one win by returning to the parents' home from time to time?
As I advanced in age I felt it unbecoming to behave as young couples do. While I was lamenting I grew ill, and could not go out to temples for worship. Even this rare going out was stopped, and I had no hope of living long, but I wanted to give my younger children a safer position while I was alive.
I grieved and waited for the delightful thing [an appointment] for my husband. In Autumn he got a position,[1] but not so good a one as we had hoped, and we were much disappointed. It was not so distant as the place from which he had returned, so he made up his mind to go, and we hastily made preparations. He started from the house where his daughter had recently gone to live.[2] It was after the tenth of the Gods-absent month. I could not know what had happened after he started, but all seemed happy on
- ↑ In 1057, as Governor of Shinano Province.
- ↑ She was thirty-five years old and her husband forty-one years old when they were married. We may suppose that she was his second wife. This daughter must have been borne by the first wife. The cause of starting from his daughter's house is some superstitious idea, and not the coldness of their relation.
