The Tales of Ise (伊勢物語 Ise monogatari) is a Japanese a collection of short, prose narratives about the poet, Ariwara no Narihira, who nevertheless is not named in the text (Narihira is known to be the protagonist both through tradition and because a number of the poems appearing in The Tales of Ise are independently identified in anthologies as being by Narihira), which provide a context for the poems. The collection dates from the 10th century, during the Heian period. Ariwara no Narihira (在原業平, 825 - July 9, 880) was a Japanese waka poet and aristocrat. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article History of Japan#Heian Period. ...

A well-known section of the Tales of Ise describes a trip taken by a minor official and his guests to Nunobiki Falls, near Kobe. They begin a poetry-writing contest, to which one of the guests, a commander of the guards, contributes: Nunobiki Falls ) is a waterfall near Kobe, Japan, with an important significance in Japanese literature and Japanese art. ... , Kobe ) is a city in Japan located on the island of Honshu. ...

Which, I wonder, is higher-

This waterfall or the fall of my tears

As I wait in vain,

Hoping today or tomorrow

To rise in the world.

The minor official offers his own composition:

It looks as though someone

Must be unstringing

Those clear cascading gems.

Alas! My sleeves are too narrow

To hold them all^[1].

Notes

References

• 'Art & Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era – Selections from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston', with essays by Sebastian Dobson, Anne Nishimura Morse, and Frederic A. Sharf (Boston: MFA Publications, 2004), 42.
• Asia Society, cited 11 April 2006.
• Morse, Anne Nishimura. 'Souvenirs of "Old Japan": Meiji-Era Photography and the Meisho Tradition'. In 'Art & Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era – Selections from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston' (Boston: MFA Publications, 2004).
• The New York Public Library, s.v. "Ise monogatari", cited 11 April 2006.