Ise no Taifu explained

, also known as Ise no Tayū or Ise no Ōsuke, was a Japanese waka poet active in the later Heian period (early 11th century).

She is one of the later Thirty-six Poetry Immortals, and one of her poems is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Her contemporaries include Uma no Naishi, Murasaki Shikibu, and Sei Shōnagon. A diptych of her exists in Nihon Meijo Banashi (Stories of Famous Japanese Women), implying that although little of her work exists into modernity, she was considered a critically important figurehead of the waka poetry movement, both as a Poetry Immortal and as a woman of renown.

Her grandfather, Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu, was also an important waka poet.

Her mother, Kura no Myobu, served Fujiwara no Yorimichi, the first son of the powerful Michinaga, so she could get a support and joined to the imperial court. She became friends with Murasaki Shikibu and Izumi Shikibu. She was talented in music, so she was very popular and noble lady-in-waiting who moreover, could write poems and songs.

Poetry

Only a few of no Taifu's poems have survived into modernity, translated in part due to Waka poetry anthologies:

Japanese[1] [2] RōmajiEnglish
散り積もる木の葉が下の忘れ水澄むとも見えず絶間のみしてChiritsumoruKonoha ga shita noWasuremizuSumu tomo miezuTaema nomi shiteScattered and drifted areThe leaves from the trees, and beneath isA forgotten streamHow unclear it seems,Appearing only now and then...

One of her poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:

JapaneseRōmajiEnglish[3]
いにしへの奈良の都の八重桜けふ九重ににほひぬるかな Inishie noNara no miyako noYaezakuraKyō kokonoe niNioinuru kanaThe double cherry treesOf the ancient capitalNaraToday must extend their fragranceTo the imperial palace.

Below is another of her poems, translated in the Asia-Pacific Journal:

JapaneseRōmajiEnglish[4]
おき明かし見つつ眺むる萩の上の露ふき乱る秋の夜の風Oki akashiMitsutsu nagamuruHagi no ue noTsuyu fuki midaruAki no yo no kazePeering hour after sleepless hour

into the dark, my vacant gaze fixes

on the dew scattered

atop the bush clover

by the autumn night’s wind

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ise no Taifu-shū 140 Waka Poetry. www.wakapoetry.net. en-GB. 2018-10-22.
  2. Book: A waka anthology. Cranston, Edwin A. . 0804719225. Stanford, California. 25163677.
  3. Book: Motoori, Norinaga. 2007. Michael F. Marra. The Poetics of Motoori Norinaga: A Hermeneutical Journey. University of Hawaii Press. 978-0-8248-3078-6. 233.
  4. News: Goshūi wakashū, poem 295 by Ise no Taifu. 2018-10-22.