山がつの垣ほ荒るともをりをりに
あはれはかけよ撫子の露
あはれはかけよ撫子の露
- Roma-ji
-
Yamagatsu no kakiho aru tomo oriori ni
aware wa kake yo nadeshiko no tsuyu - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- Even if the fence of this poor hill house falls to ruin, let your kindness come to us now and then, the way dew settles on the pink.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Hahakigi
To no Chujo told of a quiet woman of no high birth. He visited her in secret, and a small daughter was born to them, but threatening words reached her from the household of his principal wife, and she went into hiding. Before that she had sent him this poem, likening the little girl to a pink and asking that he show them kindness at least from time to time. He answered with a poem, but she disappeared, and it emerges later that this woman was Yugao.
"Yamagatsu" means a lowly person living in the hills, a way of speaking of her own position humbly. The "pink" is the small daughter, and the "dew" holds both kindness and tears. She voices no reproach directly and asks only for pity for the child's sake, which is exactly the mild, unangular woman To no Chujo had described. As groundwork for the Yugao chapter, this poem carries considerable weight.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- 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
- Among mingled blooms I cannot tell which color stands above the rest, and yet there is nothing here that comes near the summer pink
- On the summer pink, where the sleeve that brushes dust is wet with its dew, autumn has come now as well, adding the storm wind to it