うつせみの世はうきものと知りにしを
また言の葉にかかる命よ
また言の葉にかかる命よ
- Roma-ji
-
Utsusemi no yo wa uki mono to shirinishi o
mata koto no ha ni kakaru inochi yo - English Translation
-
I had come to know
this cast-off shell of a world
is a bitter thing,
and still my life hangs upon
a few leaves of words from you
- Meaning
- I had learned that this world is a bitter thing, and yet my life still hangs on a few words from you.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Yugao
From his sickbed Genji answered Utsusemi's poem of inquiry with this one. Having just lost Yugao and been taught how impermanent things are, he receives word from the woman who once refused him, and takes hold of it as a way back to himself. From this exchange he resumes his correspondence with Utsusemi and with Nokiba no Ogi, and the chapter moves toward its close.
"Utsusemi" means this present world and also carries the name of the woman herself, so the poem names its recipient with perfect aptness. "Koto no ha" plays words against leaves, and to say that a life hangs on them is to say how slender the support of a single letter is. For a poem written after so heavy an event, the handling of the double meanings is light, and one senses in it the first sign of his recovery.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Towanu o mo nadoka to towade hodo furu ni
ika bakari ka wa omoi midaruru - Next Poem
-
Naku naku mo kyō wa waga yū shitahimo o
izure no yo ni ka tokete mirubeki