Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/97

Rh relate incidents in the life of a gay young nobleman of the court of Kiōto, who is usually identified with a real personage named Narihira. Narihira lived about a century before the date when the Ise Monogatari was written, but he is supposed to have left diaries on which this work was founded. What truth there may be in this it is now impossible to ascertain, nor does it much concern us to know. The long series of love affairs in which the hero is involved are more suggestive of fiction than of fact, and the most plausible explanation of the title of the work points to the same conclusion. It seems that the men of Ise, like the Cretans of old, were not remarkable for veracity, so that the author, by calling his work Tales of Ise, probably meant to convey a broad hint to his readers that they must not take everything in it for truth. A free rendering of Ise Monogatari would be Tales for the Marines—a title under which we should not expect to find a very conscientious adherence to actual fact.

It is a caprice of the author to make all his chapters begin with the word Mukashi, the Japanese equivalent of the "a long time ago" of our fairy tales. Each serves as a setting for one or two little poems of more than average merit which are put into the mouth of the hero and his numerous inamoratas.

The first few chapters relate some juvenile love adventures of the hero. The following may serve as a specimen:—

"A long time ago there dwelt a woman in the Western Pavilion which was occupied by the Empress in East Gojō. Here she was visited by one who loved her