12 天つ風 雲の通ひ路 吹き閉ぢよ をとめの姿 しばしとどめむ （僧正遍照）
Translation
Breezes of Heaven, blow closed the pathway through the clouds to keep a little longer these heavenly dancers from returning home.
– Peter MacMillan, in: Fujiwara, Teika (2018). One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse. Penguin UK.
Author
Henjō (遍昭 or 遍照, 816 – February 12, 890) was a Japanese waka poet and Buddhist priest. At birth he was given the name Yoshimine no Munesada (良岑宗貞).
Munesada was the eighth son of Dainagon Yoshimine no Yasuyo (良岑安世), a son of Emperor Kanmu who was relegated to civilian life. He began his career as a courtier, and was later appointed to the position of kurōdo, a sort of Chamberlain, of Emperor Ninmyō. In 849, he was raised to the Head of Kurōdo (蔵人頭, Kurōdo no Tō). After Emperor Nimmyō died in 850, Munesada became a monk out of his grief, taking the religious name Henjō (literally “Universally Illuminated”).
In 885 he was appointed
Contents
I found the contents of the poem to be pretty straightforward (see “Translation”) so I have nothing special to report here.
(EDIT: I just realized that this may be the effect of what has been written as general criticism of the author: “he knows how to construct waka, but there is less real emotion. It is like when you see a picture of a woman and it moves your heart”. So yes, the poem is beautiful, the imagery is vivid and clear, but then… that’s about it.)
On one page I found a nice explanation of some words that I want to insert here:
| word | explanation |
|---|---|
| 雲の通ひ路 | 天と地をつなぐ道。天女たちが通ると考えられていた |
| をとめ | ここでは「天女」を指す |
| しばしとどめむ | 天女たちをもうしばらく見ていたいという気持ちがこめられている |
Trivia
Henjō was rumored to have had a love affair with the famous female poet Ono no Komachi.
Henjō had a son called