Who is izumi shikibu

Although I try to hold the single thought of Buddha's teaching in my heart, I cannot help but hear Watching the moon at dawn solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, Although the wind blows terribly here, the moonlight also leaks between the roof planks If the one I've waited for came now, what should I do? This morning's garden filled with snow is far too lovely I cannot say which is which: the glowing plum blossom is Poems are the property of their respective owners.

All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge Izumi Shikibu. Popular Poems. Although I Try. She had a very public dalliance with Prince Tametaka and her husband, Michisada, then even more publicly divorced her. She was also disowned by her father and things went from bad to worse when the prince died suddenly after contracting what was believed to be the plague.

Undeterred, Shikibu began a relationship with his half-brother, Prince Atsumichi, which caused more scandal when it became public shortly after. Shikibu wrote her diary at this time, which may have been done in some way to provide an explanation and acknowledgment to other members of the Imperial Court.

When Atsumichi died too, Shikibu fell in with the court of Empress Shoshi where her attitude to life and passion earned her the moniker of The Floating Lady.

I will open the shutter and watch the moon declining towards the western horizon. It seems distant and serenely transparent. There is mist over the earth; together comes the sound of the morning bell and the crowing of cocks. There will be no moment like this in past or future. I feel that the colour of my sleeves is new to me.

Another with same thoughts May be gazing at the pale morning moon Of the Long-night month— No sight is more sorrowful. Now there comes a knocking at the gate. What does it mean? Who passes the night with thoughts like mine? There is one of like mind with me Musing upon the morning moon.

But no way to find him out! The Prince read and did not feel that his visit had been in vain, if she also had been awake and sadly dreaming. He wrote promptly and the letter was presented while she was gazing aimlessly. She opened it anxiously and read: First poem: She thinks her own sleeves only are wet But another's also are rotting. Second poem: Dew-life soon to vanish away, Hangs long suspended in forgetfulness of self On the long-blooming chrysanthemum flower.

Third poem: Sleepless the call of wild geese on the cloud-track Yet the pain is from your own heart. Fourth poem: There may be another with thoughts like mine, Who is gazing toward the sky of the morning moon. Fifth poem: Although not together You too were gazing at the moon Believing that I went this morning to your gate, Alas!

O that gate hard to be opened! So her writing had not been uselessly sent! Towards the moon-hidden day she had another [Page ] letter. After excusing himself for his late neglect he wrote: I have an awkward thing to ask you. There is a lady with whom I have been secretly intimate. She is going away to a distant province and I want to send her a poem which will touch her heart deeply. Everything you write touches me, so please compose a poem for me.

She was unwilling conceitedly to carry out his wishes, but she thought it too prudish to refuse him, so she wrote with the words: "How can I satisfy you? It is painful for me to write a heartfelt letter in your place. And on the margin she wrote: Leaving you, where can she go? For me no other life. The Prince wrote back: Very good poem is all that I can say.

I cannot say that you have expressed my heart. Forsaking me she wanders away. So let it be. Let me think of you, the unexcelled one.

There is not another. Thus I can live on. It was the Tenth month and more than ten days had passed before the Prince came to her. Let me sit here near the veranda. She could not help being pleased. The moon was hidden and rain came pattering down; the scene was in harmony with their feeling. Her heart was disturbed with mingled emotions. The Prince perceived her feeling and thought: "Why is she so much slandered by others?

She is always here alone sorrowing thus. She was overwhelmed by feeling and could not speak, but he saw her tears glistening in the moonlight. He was touched and said: "Why do you not speak? Have my idle words displeased you? You will see," she went on lightly; "I shall never forget your poem on the sleeves of the arm-pillow.

He was sorry to go away from her in the early dawn, and immediately sent a message: "How are you to-day? Are the tears dry this morning? He read it and smiled at the word "arm-pillow" which she had said she should never forget.

I have never experienced so sorrow-sweet an autumn night. Was it the influence of the time? After that he could not live without seeing her, and visited her oftener. As he saw her more intimately he saw that she was not a faithless woman.

Her helpless situation touched his heart more and more, and he became deeply sympathetic with her. Once he said to her: "Even though you live on thus in solitude, I shall never forget you, but it would be better to come to my palace.

All these slanderous rumours are due to your living alone. I for my part never met any men [here]; is it because I come from time to time? Yet others tell me very improper things about you which should not be heard; it made me unspeakably sad to turn away from your shut gate. Remembering that you are living in loneliness I sometimes have made a decision; yet being old-fashioned in my ways I hesitated to tell you of it because I anticipated the profound sadness with which you would hear these rumours; nevertheless, I cannot continue our relations in this way.

I fear that the rumour might become true; then I should not be allowed to come, and you would become for me like the moon in the Heavenly way. If you really feel the loneliness you speak of, please come to me. There are many persons living there [in his palace], yet you will have no feeling of constraint.

Yet there was no mountain retreat to which she could fly from World-troubles and her present condition seemed like a never-ending night. There had been many men who had wanted her; hence many strange reports were flying about. She could have confidence in no one but the Prince, so she was much tempted. She thought: "He has his wife, yet she lives in a detached house, the nurse does all for him.

If I show my affection and take pride in it, I shall be much blamed; my wish is that he should hide me from the world. So let anything happen, I will yield to your every wish. Elsewhere they are saying ugly things about us; if they see the fact accomplished, how much harder their words will be! I will find you a completely retired house where we can talk tranquilly. She thought within herself, being much troubled: "If I continue to live alone, I can keep myself re- [Page ] spected.

If I were forsaken by him in his palace, I should be laughed at. Sodden were they, The sleeves of the arm-pillow. Her poem: Your sleeves are wet with the dews on the grass of the morning path. The sleeves of my arm-pillow are wet, but not with dew. The next night the moon was very bright. Here and there people were gazing at it. The next morning the Prince wanted to send her a poem and was waiting for the page [to take it].

The lady, too, had noticed the whiteness of the hoar-frost [and sent this poem]: There was frost on the sleeves of the arm-pillow, And in the morning, Lo! At frost-white world! The Prince was sorry the lady had got ahead of him. He said to himself: "The night was passed yearning after the beloved and frost—" Just then the page presented himself and His Highness said, with some temper, handing his letter to the page: "Her messenger has already come; I am beaten.

I wish you had come earlier. I was late and he is angry. His letter seemed not to have been suggested by hers, and she was pleased that His Highness had been in the same mood with herself.

Her poem: I did not sleep, gazing at the moon all night But the dawning of the day Was in whiteness of hoar-frost. You are angry with the page. He is very sorry, and it awakes my pity. The morning sun shines on the frost So, like the sun, your face. Two or three days passed without a word from him.

Her heart was in his promise which gave her hope, but she could not sleep for anxiety. While lying awake in bed, she heard a knocking at the gate. It was just dawn. It was the Prince's letter. It was an unusual hour for it and she wondered sorrowfully whether the Prince had been conscious of her emotion. She opened her shutter and read this letter in the moonlight: Do you see that the little night opens 1 And on the ridge of the mountain, serenely bright, Shines the moon of a night of Autumn?

The bridge across the garden pond was clearly seen [Page ] in the moonlight. The door was shut, and she thought of the messenger outside the gate and hastened her answer: The night opens and I cannot sleep, Yet I am dreaming dreams, And, loving them, the moon I do not see.

The Prince thought the answer not invented, and that it would be amusing to have her near him, to respond to his every fancy. After two days he came quietly in a palanquin for women. It was the first time she had shown herself to him in full 1 daylight, but it would be unfriendly to creep away and hide, so she went to welcome him, creeping a little nearer to the entrance. He excused himself for the absence of those days and said: "Make up your mind quickly as to the thing I spoke of the other day.

I am always uneasy in these wanderings, yet more uneasy when I cannot see you. O troublesome are the ways of this absurd world! On the hedge there was a beautiful mayumi 2 and the Prince, leaning against the balustrade: [Page ] Our words are like these leaves, Ever coloured deeper and deeper— And she took it up [completing the syllable poem he had begun]: Although it is only the pearl dew that deepens them.

The Prince was pleased and thought her not without taste. He seemed very elegant. He was attired as usual, his underdress exquisite. Her eye was much charmed, and she thought that she was too frivolous [to be thinking about it].

Next day he wrote: Yesterday I was sorry that you were embarrassed, yet the more attracted by it. I did not know what to do. The messenger came back with his poem: Were my devotion to be rewarded How could I stop, Though bridge were none at Katuragi San.

After that he came oftener, and her tiresome days were lightened. One day he sent word: "Maple trees of the mountain are very beautiful. She waked and wrote to the Prince how sorry she was that they could not have gone the previous day. His answer: In the Godless month 1 it stormed— To-day I dream and dream And wonder if the storm was within my heart.

She returned: Was it a rainstorm? How my sleeves are wet! I cannot tell—but muse profoundly. After the night storm there are no more maple leaves. O that we could have gone to the mountain yesterday! His Highness returned: O that we might have gone to see the maple leaves, for this morning it is useless to think of it. And on the margin there was a poem: Though I believe No maple leaves are hanging on the boughs, Yet we may go to see If scattering ones remain. My poem will make you laugh!

The night came and the Prince visited her. As her dwelling was in an unlucky direction, 1 he came to take her out of it. It is rather embarrassing to take you to that unfamiliar place. The palanquin was drawn into its shelter [small house built for it]; the Prince got out and walked away alone, and she felt very lonesome. When all were asleep he came to take her in and talked about various things.

The guards, who were curious about it, were walking to and fro. Ukon-no-Zo and the page waited near the Prince. His feeling for her was so intense at this moment that all the past seemed dull. When day dawned he took her back to her own home, and hurriedly returned himself to get back before people woke up.

She could no longer disregard the earnest and condescending wish of His Highness, and she could no [Page ] more treat him with indifference. She made up her mind to go to live with him. She received kind advice against it, but did not listen. As she had been unhappy, she wanted to yield herself to good fortune; yet when she thought of the court servitude she hesitated and said to herself: "It is not my inmost wish. I yearn for a retired religious life far away from worldly troubles.

What shall I do when I am forsaken by the Prince? People will laugh at my credulity. Or shall I live on as I am? Then I can associate with my parents and brothers; moreover, I can look after my child, 1 who seems now like an encumbrance. Her old friends sent letters, yet she did not answer them saying [to herself]: "There is nothing to write. There was an old poem: You are faithless, yet I will not complain.

As the silent sea Deep is the hate in my heart. Her heart was broken. There were many extraordinary rumours about her, yet there were days when she believed that no harm could come of a false rumour.

Some one must have slandered her, [Page ] suspecting that she was yielding to the earnest desires of the Prince and going to live at the palace. She was sad, but could not write to him. She was ashamed to think of what the Prince might have heard.

The Prince, seeing that she did not explain herself, wrote to her again: Why do you not answer? Now I believe in the rumour. How swiftly your heart changes! I heard something I did not believe, and wrote to you that you might wipe away such unpleasant thoughts from my mind. She was said to be one of the ladies-in-waiting in attendance on Empress Shoshi also read as Masako and to have been called Omotomaru at first, but there are also theories that contradict this assertion.

While she was still Michisada's wife, her love affair with the third son of Emperor Reizei , Prince Tametaka - , became the gossip of the court, and she was disowned by her father for loving someone above her station. After the death of Price Tametaka, she was then courted by Prince Atsumichi - , his younger brother by the same mother. When he tried to place her in his mansion, his principal wife left him as a result.