Musashino—
do not burn it today;
in the young grass
my beloved husband hides,
and I too lie hidden.
- Meaning
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Musashino—do not burn it today. In the young grass my beloved husband lies hidden, and I too lie hidden.
- Commentary
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Episode Twelve: "Musashino"
When a man carried off another’s daughter and took her to Musashino, he was seized by the provincial governor.
As he fled, he hid the woman he had taken in the thick-growing grass. Those who pursued him, seeking to capture him, said, "A thief is hiding in the meadow," and were about to set fire to it. In her distress and sorrow, the woman composed this poem.
Because she calls the man "my beloved husband of the young grass," the two were likely bound by mutual love; yet to the woman’s parents, the man who carried off their cherished daughter would have seemed no better than a thief.
There is a poem in the Kokin Collection depicting the love of a young man and woman hidden in the spring grass of the fields; this poem is a reworking of that theme.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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