Diaries of Court Ladies
I did not even listen to his story nor question him as to how things seemed in his dream. Some one said, "Pray to the Heavenly Illuminating Honoured Goddess," and my irreverent mind thought, "Where is she? Is she a Goddess or a Buddha?"
At first I said so, but afterwards grew more discreet and asked some one about her, who replied: "She is a goddess, and takes up her abode at Isé.[1] The goddess is also worshipped by the Provincial Governor of Kii. She is worshipped at the ancestor shrine in the Imperial Court."
I could not by any means get to Isé. How could I bow before the Imperial shrine? I could never be allowed to go there. The idea flowed through my mind to pray for the heavenly light.
A relative of mine became a nun, and entered the Sugaku Temple. In winter I sent her a poem:
Even tears arise for your sake
When I think of the mountain hamlet
Where snowstorms will be raging.
Reply:
I seem to have a glimpse of you
Coming to me through the dark wood,
When close over head is Summer's growth of leaves.
1036. Father, who had gone down towards the East, came back at last. He settled down at Nishiyama, and we all went there. We were very happy. One moon-bright night we talked all the night through:
- ↑ The Isé shrine was first built in the year 5 B.C. See note on Isé shrine in Murasaki Shikibu Diary.
