Departure (ch.1) continued

門出したるところは、めぐりなどもなくて、かりそめの茅屋（かやや）の、しとみなどもなし。簾（すだれ）かけ、幕などひきたり。南ははるかに野の方見やれる。ひむがし西は海近くて、いと面白し。夕霧立ち渡りて、いみじうをかしければ朝寝（あさい）などもせず、方々見つつ、ここを立ちなむことも哀れに悲しきに、同じ月の十五日、雨かきくらし降るに、境を出でて、しもつさの国のいかたという所に泊まりぬ。庵など浮きぬばかりに雨降りなどすれば、恐ろしくて寝（い）も寝られず、野中に岡だちたる所に、ただ木ぞ三つたてる。その日は雨にぬれたる物どもを乾し、国にたちおくれたる人々待つとて、そこに日を暮しつ。

The place we had departed for (in Imatachi) had not the slightest fencing shrubbery. It was no more than a thatch-roofed hut for temporary shelter, without even a shitomi. There was just the barest screen, and a bit of curtain. To the south, one could see fields stretching into the distance. On the east and the west, the sea was nearby--very pleasant. In the eveing, the mists would rise and envelop us, and it was all so interesting I could never sleep late, always looking here and there, feeling sad and thinking it a pity we would eventually have to leave this place too. But on the fifteenth of the same month, on a day dark with pouring rain, we crossed the border and camped at a place called Ikata in the country of Shimotsusa (later and now, Shimōsa). It rained so hard it felt like our little shack might float away at any moment, and I was so afraid I could hardly sleep.

In the middle of the fields, we came across a small rise with a mere three trees. We spent that day drying our clothes soaked from the rain, and deciding to wait for those who had set out after us, we stayed there for the night.

How about that? A day after Matt's post on inu, it pops up not once, but twice in the next section of Sarashina I translate. First in 朝寝asa-i, "sleeping late (in the morning)", then in 寝も寝られずi mo nerarezu, "unable to sleep". Have to love coincidence

Other thoughts:

This place, Ikata, is thought by my book to be a mistake for Iketa, especially considering that there are records of an old neighborhood name 池田 Ikeda in modern Chiba City, near the 寒川(Samugawa??) area, right around where she should have been at this point in her journey. The connection seems very plausible to me, but not the part about the mistake. Especially in place names, there's a not uncommon a-mutation in Japanese compounds. For example,

風見　kaze + mi > Kazami (name)
金物　kane + mono > kanamono (old school word for "metals" before the upstart neo-sinic 金属)
白木　shiro + ki > shiraki (unvarnished wood, esp. for the construction of a Shinto temple, thanks 広辞苑!)

And so on. I find it most commonly in last names, and though I've never noticed a 田 triggering it, I don't see why it couldn't happen. Anyone know any examples of a-mutation before 田?

And while we're on derivations, notice the ultra-cool evidence of the origins of higashi "east". Supposedly from 日向風(hi-mu-kasi) "(the direction of) the sundwards wind", so old the mu hadn't become ku-ified yet.