咲きまじる色はいづれと分かねども
なほ常夏にしくものぞなき
なほ常夏にしくものぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Sakimajiru iro wa izure to wakanedomo
nao tokonatsu ni shiku mono zo naki - English Translation
-
Among mingled blooms
I cannot tell which color
stands above the rest,
and yet there is nothing here
that comes near the summer pink
- Meaning
- Among all these flowers blooming together I cannot say which color is finest, and still nothing comes near the summer pink.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Hahakigi
Receiving her poem on the dew and the pink, To no Chujo sent back this one. Where she had likened their small daughter to a pink, he uses another name for the same flower to mean the mother herself, answering that she surpasses them all. But the words were not enough to quiet her fears, and unable to bear the threats from his wife's household she vanished. He still does not know where mother and child have gone, and tells it all as a story for that night.
"Tokonatsu" is another name for the pink, and it also echoes "toko," a bed, hinting at the bond between man and woman. She had used the flower for the daughter; he uses its other name for the mother, taking up the exchange skillfully. Yet he goes no further than saying nothing surpasses her, and offers no word about protecting her—which is where the weakness of the whole relationship shows.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- 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
- 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
- At this dusk, when signs the spider gives are so clear, to be told to wait and let the daylight go by makes no sense that I can see