Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Kiyohara no Motosuke

Meaning

We promised each other, wringing out our tear-soaked sleeves, that our love would last forever, never to be swept away like the waves beyond Suenomatsu.

Commentary

"Suenomatsu-yama" (Pine Mountain at the End) was a legendary place in ancient poetry, used as a symbol of the impossible: it was said the sea could never reach it. The lovers had sworn by this impossibility — their love would endure as long as the sea remained below the mountain. But now the speaker faces the bitter fact that the impossible has occurred, and the vow has been broken.

Kiyohara no Motosuke was one of the five compilers of the Gosen Wakashū and is particularly significant as the father of Sei Shōnagon (poem 62). The poem's emotional force lies in the contrast between the physical intensity of the oath — made with tears, with sleeves wrung out — and its utter betrayal. Few broken-promise poems in the Hyakunin Isshu are as precise and unflinching as this one.

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