Japan Navigator

Sei Shonagon is in the first place famous for her Pillow Book, but she did also write poetry and was even counted among the “Late Classical Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.”

One of her poems has been included in the Hyakunin Isshu collection - it is a piece that demonstrates her quick wit, something that was expected of court ladies.

In order to understand that poem, you first have to know the story behind it that Sei Shonagon herself has recounted in the Pillow Book.

[Sennyuji Temple in Kyoto, where the poetry stone of Sei Shonagon stands]

It involves the courtier and famous calligrapher Yukinari, who served as Major Councelor. He must have met Sei Shonagon in the period 993-1000. Once, supposedly on an evening in the palace, he told her that he had to rush off because of an Imperial Abstinence, but the next morning he sent a witty note pretending that the cock’s cry had called him home - and so in fact playing at being her lover, who had spent the night with her untill dawn.

Sei Shonagon curtly replied that it must have been a false cock. She referred to a traditional Chinese story in which a fleeing prince has his attendents imitate a cock’s crow in order to have a barrier gate (that was closed at night) opened for him.

A clear, off-putting reply, I would say. But Yukinari was not to be silenced and wrote back that the closed gate had in fact been the Barrier of Meeting Hill - this was a well-known barrier east of Kyoto, on the pass between Kyoto and Otsu, which because of a wordplay on its name, in poetry often suggested a lover’s tryst.

In answer Sei Shonagon then wrote the following poem:

the cock’s cry
in the depth of night
may have deceived some
but the Barrier of Meeting Hill
will not let you through

yo wo komete
tori no sora-ne wa
hakaru tomo
yo ni osaka no
seki wa yurusaji

In plain words: you can try to fool people with your false cock cries in the middle of the night, but “my barrier” will remain closed to you!

The poetry stone with this poem stands in the grounds of Sennyuji Temple - Sei Shonagon’s father, Kiyohara no Motosuke, had a cottage in this area, and the location is also close to the grave of Teishi (died 1000 CE), the Empress whom Sei Shonagon served.

Article on Sei Shonagon: The Lists of a Lady-in-Waiting: A Portrait of the Author of The Pillow Book

Translations of the Pillow Book: Sei Shōnagon & McKinney (translator), Meredith (2006), The Pillow Book, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44806-3

Sei Shōnagon & Morris (translator), Ivan (1971), The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44236-7. Originally published in 1967 by Columbia University Press.

Web links to partial translations of the Pillow Book

William N. Porter’s 1909 translation of the Hyakunin Isshu (the present poem is no. 62).