Like the dew that lies
on a cicada's thin wing,
hidden by the tree,
secretly and secretly
these sleeves of mine are wetted
- Meaning
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Like dew on a cicada's wing, hidden away in the shade of the tree, my sleeves are wet in secret, and in secret again.
- Commentary
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Part One: Utsusemi
Reading the poem Kogimi brought back, Utsusemi understood how deeply her conduct had wounded Genji. Married, and a provincial governor's wife at that, she knew she could not respond, and still she could not cut off her feeling for the young and brilliant Genji. Unable even to send a reply, she wrote this poem down where no one would see it. With it the Utsusemi chapter closes, and their story is carried on to the end of the Yugao chapter, when she goes down to Iyo.
She takes up his "utsusemi" and turns it toward a related image, dew lying on a cicada's wing. "Hidden by the tree" places dew out of sight and lays over it her own concealment of what she feels. "Secretly and secretly," repeated, is the state of continual holding back. The dew carries tears, and wet sleeves are the old poetic way of saying one is weeping. This is a poem written for herself rather than sent to him, and it holds at once her resolve to refuse and the feeling she cannot suppress.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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