やすらはで

寝なまし物を

小夜更けて

かたぶくまでの

月を見しかな

あかぞめえもん

やすらわで

ねなましものを

さよふけて

かたぶくまでの

つきをみしかな

Lady Akazome Emon

Hesitating

To take a restful sleep

So late at night

I’d rather watch the moon

Commence her downward path.

Hokusai

Akazome Emon (956-1041) is the step-daughter of Akazome Tokimochi, but her biological father is the former husband of her mother, Taira Kanemori. Akazome means ‘dyed red’ and emon refers to an imperial department. She was a lady-in-waiting in regent Fujiwara no Michinaga’s household and later at the court of Empress Shoshi. She had a very loving relationship with her husband, Oe no Masahira, who was a famous literary scholar. Her poetry was published as the Akazome Emon Collection, and she is said to be the main author of the Eiga Monogatari (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes) which relates the events Michinaga’s life. She belongs to the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The note to this poem says that it was composed for someone else after an amorous rebuff.

Hokusai shows us a scene at full moon, with a courtesan returning disenchanted.