[62] よを (Yoo)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Illustration of Rooster and Hen by Kōno Bairei

よをこめて・とりのそらねは・はかるとも

yo o komete・tori no sorane wa・hakaru tomo

よにあふさかの・せきはゆるさじ
yo ni Ōsaka no・seki wa yurusaji

〜清少納言（Sei Shōnagon）

Translation

The rooster's crowing
In the middle of the night
Deceived the hearers;
But at Ōsaka's gateway
The guards are never fooled.

Meaning

The background to this story is that Fujiwara no Yoshinari had payed a visit to the author of the poem, Sei Shōnagon, but had left in the middle of the night. He sent her a message apologizing, making the excuse that he had "heard a rooster crowing in the middle of the night" so he left early, believing mistakenly that it was dawn. Sei Shōnagon apparently believed this to be a flimsy excuse, and sent back a response that was something along the lines of "Are you sure that wasn't you, pretending to make a rooster call to trick the gate guards and sneak out early?" This is also a reference to a famous story from China about a person tricking guards into opening a gate by imitating a rooster's crowing.

The message correspondence between the two continued: Yoshinari replied that though there might be similarities in his story to the famous tale, he was at a different gate, the gateway of "meeting hill", 逢ふ坂の関 (Ōsaka no seki). This is a reference to a hill where lovers would rendezvous. As response, Sei Shōnagon composed the above poem, saying that the guards of "meeting hill" will not be fooled by a fake rooster call, and her poem seems to also send the message:"even you come to meet me, I won't meet with you". This poem captures a very interesting back and forth correspondence between two highly educated lovers, with Sei Shonagon especially flexing her knowledge and writing skills through crafty references and word-play. 

The first phraseよをこめて (yo o komete) is a time reference meaning the middle of the night. In the second half of the poem, よにあふさかの・せきはゆるさじ (yo ni Ōsaka no・seki wa yurusaji), the grammar structure よに ~ じ correlates to 決して〜ない(keshite~nai), essentially meaning the gate keepers will never let allow him (Yoshinari) through, even if he attempts to deceive them. Although 逢坂の関 is pronounced Ōsaka no seki, this is not a reference to Osaka prefecture, but rather a famous hill in Shiga, which is a location often referenced in poems and sometimes translated as "meeting hill", or "rendezvous hill". This location is also referenced in poem [10] Kore and poem [25] Nanishi.

Author

Sei Shōnagon (966 ~ 1027) was the daughter of Kiyohara no Motosuke, author of [42] Chigiriki and the granddaughter of Kiyohara no Fukayabu, author of [36] Natsu. She was invited to the court of Empress Teishi who had a famous rivalry with Empress Shōshi. Empress Shōshi also invited many prominent female poets to her court, one of them being Murasaki Shikibu, author of [57] Me, with whom Sei Shōnagon appears to have had a rivalry, as they were both considered to be extremely talented and famous writers at the time. 

Sei Shōnagon is especially famous for authoring "The Pillow Book", a collection of essays and other writings which detailed her life and experiences in the Imperial Court.