Lord Nyo’s Continuing Lament, from “The Nightingale’s Song” Part 7
–
Lord Nyo galloped away-
He did not go far.
Armed with two swords,
His bow and falcon,
He halted at the edge of a grizzled field,
Autumn rain mixing with tufts of chaff
This harvested field
Forlorn, abandoned.
The scene fit his mood.
–
Sitting under an old gingko,
Only a few yellowed, fan-shaped leaves
Tiredly holding on to life,
He pulled the bone-white fan
From his breast
And thought of poems
He vaguely remembered
From his youth.
–
What had seemed so right
The night before,
When he had taken his brush
To the task of reforming a life
Now in the cold rain
Under cover of gray morning,
Was more like folly–
The desperate hopes of an old fool.
–
What good was this brushed fan
When between man and wife
Was a sea filled with misery?
–
When hidden by bamboo blinds
He spied his wife quietly sitting,
Mending a gown,
Quilting a warm tunic,
While around her
Her women tittered like birds,
Laughing and playing finger games
While she,
Pale face serene,
Sat peacefully at work.
–
He remembered the early years
When he would enter her quarters,
Pick his way carefully across the mats
Larded with colorful lumps of sleeping women
And pillow her in the dark
Unmindful of the snores
And nightmare-groans of her women.
–
He remembered her reading
Poems to him,
And shyly reading some of her own.
He marveled at her fertile mind.
–
She never carried a child.
He could have put her aside,
Taken another wife for heirs–
Yet he didn’t.
–
One old poem kept turning his brain.
A poem a thousand years old,
One that spoke deeply:
–
“This body of mine
has crossed the mountain barrier
and is here indeed!
But this heart of mine remains
drawing closer to my wife”
–
Lord Nyo reached inside his breast
And uncurled a paper
Plain, rough in texture,
And read what he had
Written, the one
He did not burn.
–
Her voice sings
Like a bird beneath the leaves
Of a fall mountain.
If she’d only speak to me
What would we have to grieve?
–
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2011, 2013
Tags: 'The Nightingale's Song', 17th century Japan, Jane Kohut-Bartels-author, Lady Nyo, Lory Nyo's Continuing Lament, love and marriage, Part 7, turmoil
August 9, 2013 at 2:03 pm
This is so moving. poor Lord Nyo. How does he get back across those colorful lumps of sleeping women, back to his wife….beautiful and powerful.
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August 9, 2013 at 3:46 pm
LOL! this was common living quarters in the 17th Century Japan. A Lady would have her women surrounding her, and the husband would make ‘visits’. Rarely did they live together, especially of this class. Peasants did, or course, and merchants built houses in the towns…and married life was different…but a court woman, of which Lady Nyo is part of Lord Mori’s court, would live in a compound probably. It changes later in the story, maybe, I can’t remember…LOL!
Lord Nyo suffers a bit more (as he should…) LOL!
Thank you for reading and your comment CS.
Lady Nyo…but not THIS Lady Nyo in the story.
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August 9, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Yah, I got my Lady Nyo’s sorted out. xoxoxox
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August 9, 2013 at 5:18 pm
LOL! Good. Hugs back!
This humidity wilting LN.
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August 10, 2013 at 11:41 am
It’s been like a steam bath out here. Are you and DH able to get to the shore at all? How is he doing lately? And how is that Sasha doing? Fattened up by now?
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August 10, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Whoa! Until yesterday, the summer has been very pleasant…and unusual for August! Yesterday and today, a steam bath like you! LOL! Ugh…AC going full blast and still only partly helping….going outside is unsafe!
We were so spoiled by what came before these few days, but the mold and mildew all over is showing from the constant rains for months!.
No~! We are landlocked in Atlanta…and any shore is hours and hours away…but this fall, by hook or crook, I intend to see the ocean..the Mother of Us All.
Sasha! Oh, was a wonderful little kitty. Very steady, not a pest now, has fallen into the cat routine here, though DH calls him “Nibbles” because he runs up and bits you on the nose. Annoying, especially when you are asleep. DH is adjusting to the ‘extra’ cat very nicely…I didn’t expect him to do so….but I think he’s given up on all these adoptions! LOL!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and we will talk again, soon.
Hugs,
Jane
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August 12, 2013 at 2:59 pm
Hi Lady Nyo,
That also struck me that he had to climb over the woman to get to his wife – the other woman wait on her because she is a member of court?
Hugs, TR
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August 12, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Hi TR! Yes, Lady Nyo is a member of Lord Mori’s court. She would be because her husband, a samurai in the service of Lord Mori, is an advisor and general in his army. She would also be given the respect as a samurai family….and also her lineage is Fujiwara…an old name and clan in Japan…and once powerful. She is a distant relative, though. Lord Nyo makes mention of this coming up.
A woman with this exalted position, (through marriage) would have servants, women to attended her, or just kept her company…companions. Some probably would be distant relatives, or women with lesser status in court. They would weave, embroider, attend silk worms, etc. They also would gossip, play games, etc. They probably would be called upon to entertain with poetry, and depending upon the formality of the particular court (this would vary depending upon region) perhaps they would play the samisen, or sing/dance. Lord Mori’s court is stuck up in the North Western mountains, around Gassan (Moon) Mountain, and I would think it would be rather provincial.(Think Snow Country…where snows are not melting until June/July). So there would be no lessening of rank for a woman like Lady Nyo to be called upon to present her poetry…Poetry was especially honored in a court situation. Or to entertain the court with her playing samisen.
As you will see, they do have their own house…but generally the women would sleep together in a large room. Hence, the colorful lumps on the floor. They would be sleeping on tatami mats, snoring away. Probably most of these women would be widowed, or very young, without beaus yet.
Interestingly enough…sexual contact was pretty common in a ‘group’ setting like this. Women didn’t disrobe completely…there were layers of kimono to get through, so they could have sex just sitting up, or sitting on the lap of their lords. LOL!
Earlier, in the Heian period , say 10-12th century Japan, married men and women didn’t live together. They lived separately. Perhaps the women lived in a compound attached to the court, and the husband had to make sneak visits to their wives…but I think this generally breaks down in the 17th century and beyond.
Thank you, TR, for reading and your comment!
Hugs back!
Lady Nyo
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