寄りてこそそれかとも見めたそかれに
ほのぼの見つる花の夕顔
ほのぼの見つる花の夕顔
- Roma-ji
-
Yorite koso sore ka to mo mime tasokare ni
honobono mitsuru hana no yūgao - English Translation
-
Only drawing near
could one tell if it is that—
in the failing dusk
what I saw was faint and dim,
that flower of evening face
- Meaning
- Only by coming close could one tell whether it is truly that—this evening face flower, glimpsed so faintly in the dusk.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Yugao
Reading the poem on the fan by lamplight, Genji was struck by the quality of the hand and felt the woman of that house was no ordinary person. He set Koremitsu to find out about the household, and meanwhile sent an answering poem—this one. Letters began to pass between them, and Genji took to visiting her with his face covered, still hiding who he was.
He takes up her own "is it that" and "evening face flower" and returns them, as the etiquette of poetic exchange required. "Tasokare" comes from a phrase meaning "who is that?" and names the hour when faces grow hard to make out, so that not knowing who someone is and the light of that hour are held in one word. By saying that only closeness makes things clear, he conveys his wish to meet her without pressing it, and the poem marks the beginning of the affair at Gojo.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Like the dew that lies on a cicada's thin wing, hidden by the tree, secretly and secretly these sleeves of mine are wetted
- Guessing at a glance, I take it to be that one— the evening flower on which the white dew has laid a light that it did not have
- Not even waiting for the morning mist to clear, you go on your way— I see that this flower here has held no part of your heart
- The name of a man whose heart moves to each new bloom I would rather hide, and yet it is hard to pass this morning glory unplucked