難波江の

蘆のかり寝の

一夜ゆゑ

身をつくしてや

恋ひわたるべき

こうかもんいんのべっとう

なにわえの

あしのかりねの

ひとよゆえ

みをつくしてや

こいわたるべき

Attendant to Empress Koka

For the sake of one brief night

As short as a snag of reed

In Naniwa Bay,

Must I therefore waste myself

For the love of him?

Hokusai

Koka Monin no Betto (dates unknown) means ‘attendant of empress Koka’. She was the daughter of Minamoto no Toshitaka and worked for empress Seishi (also called Kokamon or Masako, who was the daughter of Tadamichi [poem 76]). She is also known as Lady Betto. She has nine poems in imperial anthologies.

作者略伝と語釈

This poem has references to poem 19 (Naniwa reeds) and 20 (miotsukushi). It was written for a poetry contest on the theme of ‘love meet at travel inn’. It has many pivot words, which makes it very difficult to translate and conserve all connotations. Karine means ‘snag, stubble’ but also ‘catnap’ and ‘stopping at an inn’. Hitoyo is ‘one night’ and ‘one node of reed’. Miotsukushi is ‘a ship guiding stake’ and miotsukusu ‘to entirely exhaust oneself’.

In Hokusai’s drawing we see a whole cart-load of long reeds being hauled towards destination by three men exhausting themselves. The rascal!