逢ふまでの形見ばかりと見しほどに
ひたすら袖の朽ちにけるかな
ひたすら袖の朽ちにけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Au made no katami bakari to mishi hodo ni
hitasura sode no kuchinikeru kana - English Translation
-
While I looked on it
as a keepsake to hold me
until we should meet,
this sleeve of mine has wholly
worn away and rotted through
- Meaning
- While I kept it only as a token to hold me until we met again, my sleeve has worn quite away with tears.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Yugao
Utsusemi's husband, the Iyo Deputy, was appointed to his province, and she was to leave the capital with him. Genji had kept as a keepsake the thin robe she once slipped out of and left behind, and on her departure he decided to return it. This poem went with it. She answered, and with that exchange their story reaches a kind of close.
"Katami" is an object kept for remembrance—here the robe she left. "The sleeve has rotted through" is an old poetic way of saying tears have worn it out, and it measures the length of time spent without meeting. Returning the robe carries the sense of a parting, and rather than reproach her he shows the depth of his feeling simply by saying how much he has wept.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Honomekasu kaze ni tsukete mo shitaogi no
nakaba wa shimo ni musubōretsutsu - Next Poem
-
Semi no ha mo tachikaetekeru natsugoromo
kaesu o mite mo ne wa nakarekeri