Before I have done
blaming her for her coldness,
at this break of dawn
the cock crows to startle me
into leaving all behind
- Meaning
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Before I have finished reproaching her coldness, the dawn comes, and the bird startles me into leaving without even gathering myself.
- Commentary
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Part One: Hahakigi
The day after the rainy-night discussion, Genji stayed at the house of the Governor of Kii to avoid an unlucky direction. Utsusemi, the second wife of the governor's father, the Iyo Deputy, was staying there as well. Late in the night Genji made his way into her room and, holding her against her resistance, spent the night with her. As the sky began to lighten and the crowing of the birds pressed him to go, he spoke this poem. She answered with one of her own, and he left with his heart still behind him.
"Shinonome" is the sky at daybreak, the hour of the morning-after parting. "Toriaenu" means having no time even to gather one's things, and it also sounds the word for the bird, so that the crowing that hurries the parting is folded into the poem itself. By saying he has not yet finished reproaching her coldness, he says that the night ended with nothing satisfied, and shows that from the start this bond runs only one way.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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