木枯らしに吹きあはすめる笛の音を
ひきとどむべき言の葉ぞなき
ひきとどむべき言の葉ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Kogarashi ni fukiawasumeru fue no ne o
hikitodomubeki koto no ha zo naki - English Translation
-
That flute whose sound blows
joined with the withering wind—
I have not a word
with which to draw it back here
and hold the player near me
- Meaning
- That flute sounding along with the cold wind—I have no words left that could draw it back and keep it here.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Hahakigi
Answering the courtier's poem, the woman at the wagon koto sent back this one at once. In the flute heard beyond the gate she reads the heart of the man now moving away from her. The poem is quick and well made, and the Sama no Kami was impressed after a fashion, but this constant display of cleverness wore on him, and in the end he stopped visiting the house.
"Kogarashi" is the cold wind of winter, used here with the man's coldness folded into it. "Hikitodomu" takes up the "hold in place" of the poem before it, carrying the exchange's words faithfully forward. Where he asked whether her koto could hold him, she answers that not even words can, which is admirable as a duel of wit and yet lowers her in his estimation—and that is the irony of the anecdote.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Bitter joints I've kept counting in my heart alone— and is this the time, this one, when I must part from your hand and let go of it
- Though this house has both a koto and moon past praise, with those strings of hers could she draw and hold in place the man who would not stay here
- Though the woven fence of this poor hill dwelling breaks, still from time to time let your pity fall on us as dew falls upon the pink
- Among mingled blooms I cannot tell which color stands above the rest, and yet there is nothing here that comes near the summer pink