咲く花に移るてふ名はつつめども
折らで過ぎ憂き今朝の朝顔
折らで過ぎ憂き今朝の朝顔
- Roma-ji
-
Saku hana ni utsuru chō na wa tsutsumedomo
orade sugiuki kesa no asagao - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- I would keep hidden the name of a man whose heart moves to each new flower, and still I find it hard to pass this morning glory without picking it.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Yugao
Genji answered the Rokujo lady's poem on the spot with this one. Morning glories happened to be in bloom in the garden, and he took them for his subject. On the surface it is regret at leaving a flower, but underneath he acknowledges his own reputation while admitting that he is drawn all the same. He continued to see her afterward, but his visits grew rare and her feelings sank deeper.
"The name of one whose heart moves" is his reputation for turning from woman to woman, and shows that he knows of it himself. "Hard to pass unplucked" means it pains him to go by without picking, the act of picking standing for a bond with a woman. He does not meet her reproach directly but turns it aside with wit, and one can already read in this the misalignment growing between them.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- 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
- Taking as our guide the road the lay ascetic walks in his practice, do not break the deeper vow that binds us in the next world
- Since the bond I had in a life before this one is known by my grief, I cannot bring myself yet to trust in what is to come