[60] おおえ (Ooe)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Picture of Amanohashidate from Wikipedia, photo credit 663highland

おおえやま・いくののみちの・とうければ
ooeyama ikuno no michi no to kereba

まだふみもみず・あまのはしだて

mada fumi mo mizu・Ama no Hashidate

〜小式部内侍（Koshikibu no Naishi）

Translation

By Ōe Mountain

The road to Ikuno

Is far away,

And neither have I beheld

Nor crossed its bridge of heaven.

Meaning

Looking at this English translation without any context, the true meaning of this poem is quite obscure. First, it is important to note that the author's mother was Izumi Shikibu, a famed author at the time. The author of this poem, Koshikibu no Naishi, was also a highly gifted poet, but she was so gifted from such a young age that there were rumors that perhaps her mother had written poems for her. Koshikibu was slated to participate in a poetry contest, and before the contest, another poet, Fujiwara no Sadayori, (author of [64] Asaborakeu), asked her something along the lines of "Oh, have you asked your mother for her help yet?" This poem was her response. Essentially it means "My mother is too far away, and I haven't seen her or contacted her, so this poem is my own." The poem itself contains several poetic techniques, like utamakura (places often referenced in poetry, or common descriptive epithets) and kakekotoba (words with double meanings), and it is basically just a really high-brow way of telling off another poet for doubting her skills. 

There are multiple locations referenced in this poem. 大江山(Ōeyama) is a mountain range in Kyoto prefecture which lay between the provinces of 丹後（Tango） and 山城（Yamashiro).  天橋立(Amanohashidate), which can be seen in the picture above, is a thin strip of land which lies between two bodies of water. Its name means "bridge of heaven" and it is considered one of the top 3 scenic locations in Japan. It is located in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture, a good distance from the main part of the capitol (just as Koshikibu's poem suggests). 

いく野の道（ikuno no michi) is actually a three-way play on words, where 生野(ikuno) refers to a place in Kyoto, while いく(iku) can mean 行く,"to go", or 幾, meaning "many" or "very". The word ふみ (fumi) also is a play on words, since it can mean 踏み(to step) or 文 (sentences, which here can mean correspondence with her mother). Therefore, まだふみも見ず carries a double meaning of "I have never set foot there" and also "I have never seen her letters". 

Author

Koshikibu no Naishi ( around 1000 ~ 1025) was the daughter of Izumi Shikibu, author of [56] Araza. She was also a member of Empress Sōshi's court. She married Fujiwara no Kiminari and had a child with him, but passed at a young age from illness.