さしぐみに袖ぬらしける山水に
澄める心は騒ぎやはする
澄める心は騒ぎやはする
- Roma-ji
-
Sashigumi ni sode nurashikeru yamamizu ni
sumeru kokoro wa sawagi ya wa suru - English Translation
-
At this mountain stream
that has of a sudden made
your sleeve wet with tears,
would a heart that dwells here clear
be stirred and troubled at all
- Meaning
- At this mountain water that has suddenly wet your sleeve, would a heart long settled and clear here ever be stirred?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Wakamurasaki
When Genji spoke his poem on the waterfall at daybreak, the bishop answered on the spot with this one. Having lived here for years, long used to water and wind alike, he says nothing troubles his mind, setting that against the feeling of a man newly arrived from the capital. Genji read in the reply the steadiness of one who has left the world behind. Day broke, and he began preparing to return.
"Sashigumi ni" means all at once, and points to Genji hearing the sound for the first time. "Mountain water" takes up the waterfall from his poem. "Sumeru" plays water running clear against a heart that is clear and unmoved, binding the stream and the bishop's mind in one word. Two men hear the same waterfall: one weeps, one is untouched, and the exchange states that contrast plainly.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- The dew of one night, this night alone, on the grass you bind as pillow— do not set it up beside the moss of these deep mountains
- Waking from my dream at the deep mountain wind's blast blowing every way, here is the sound of falling water that draws out my tears
- I will go and tell the people of the palace of this hill cherry, so that they may come and look before the wind gets here first
- It is as though I had waited and met at last the udumbara— and my eyes will not shift now to the cherry of deep hills