Weeping as I tie
with my own hands, on this day,
this under-sash cord—
in what world am I to see
it loosened, opened again
- Meaning
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Weeping, I tie this under-cord with my own hands today—in what world will I ever see it loosened again?
- Commentary
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Part One: Yugao
Recovered from his illness, Genji held the forty-ninth-day rites for Yugao in secret at a Lotus hall on Mount Hiei. He had Koremitsu prepare the offerings, among them a pair of trousers, and as he tied the cord with his own hands he could not hold back this poem. It was a mourning no one could be told of, and with these rites his days with Yugao come to a close.
The "shitahimo" is the cord tied inside a garment, and "toku" means both to loosen it and to open one's heart. The chapter has already had a poem about a flower loosening its cords, and the word recurs as a figure for their bond. Here the act is reversed—he ties it himself—and the parting brought by death is turned into a concrete gesture: a knot that will never be undone.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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