A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 98 of 101

97. The Assistant Imperial Adviser Sada-iye: Gon Chu-Nagon Sada-iye

97

The Assistant Imperial Adviser Sada-iye

Gon Chu-nagon Sada-iye

Konu hito wo Matsu-hō no ura no Yūnagi ni Yaku ya moshio no Mi mo kogare-tsutsu.

UPON the shore of Matsu-hō For thee I pine and sigh; Though calm and cool the evening air, These salt-pans caked and dry Are not more parched than I!

Sada-iye, of the Fujiwara family, was the Compiler of this Collection of verses; he was the son of Toshi-nari, the writer of verse No. 83, and he entered the priesthood, dying in the year 1242, at the age of eighty.

Matsu-hō is on the north coast of the Island of Awaji, in the Inland Sea; but the word also means 'a place of waiting and longing for somebody'. Kogare means 'scorching or evaporating' (sea-water in the saltpans), but it also has the meaning 'to long for, or to love ardently.'

The illustration shows two men carrying pails of sea-water to the salt-pans.