Bending back my hands
to count the times we have met,
is this one alone
the bitter joint you have known—
this single knuckle of yours
- Meaning
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If I count on my fingers all that has passed between us, surely this is not the only bitter joint you have known.
- Commentary
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Part One: Hahakigi
On a night of continuing summer rain, Hikaru Genji, To no Chujo, the Sama no Kami, and the Tо̄ Shikibu no Jo gathered in the palace night quarters and talked over the merits of women—the famous rainy-night discussion. The Sama no Kami told of a deeply jealous woman he had known. Once, in a quarrel, she bit his finger; he made a great show of the pain and spoke this poem to her. She answered with a poem of her own, and in the end the two parted. Years later he still thought of her and spoke of his regret.
"Fushi" plays on the joint of a finger and the turning points of painful events, so that from one wound on one finger the poem opens out to everything that had gathered between them. He rebukes her jealousy but does so lightly, half in jest, and the poem itself carries a man's habit of making a serious moment small. Among the anecdotes told that rainy night, this is one whose scene stays vivid.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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