逢ふことの夜をし隔てぬ仲ならば
ひる間も何かまばゆからまし
ひる間も何かまばゆからまし
- Roma-ji
-
Au koto no yo o shi hedatenu naka naraba
hiruma mo nani ka mabayukaramashi - English Translation
-
If we were a pair
who let no night come between
the times that we meet,
why would the daylight hours then
be anything to shrink from
- Meaning
- If we were close enough that not a single night passed between our meetings, what would there be in the daylight to be ashamed of?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Hahakigi
As the Tо̄ Shikibu no Jo fled, the scholar's daughter sent this poem after him. It reproaches a man whose visits had grown rare, and at the same time shows her wit in answering on the instant. He finished the story by saying that such a woman is, after all, hard to be at ease with, and the company laughed. The rainy-night discussion ends here, and Genji's interest in women of the middle rank deepens.
She takes his "hiruma" and turns the same word back on him. "Mabayukaramashi" means "would be embarrassing," and the contrary-to-fact form lets her imply that they are not in truth so close. The scene is comic, yet the poem is exactly made, and the way the words are handled shows plainly the learned woman the story sets up.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- Before I have done blaming her for her coldness, at this break of dawn the cock crows to startle me into leaving all behind
- This night that breaks up before I have grieved my fill at my wretched life— laid over the bird's crying, my own voice cries out as well