宮人に行きて語らむ山桜
風よりさきに来てもみるべく
風よりさきに来てもみるべく
- Roma-ji
-
Miyabito ni yukite kataramu yamazakura
kaze yori saki ni kite mo mirubeku - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- I shall go back and tell them at the palace of this mountain cherry, so that they may come and see it before the wind does.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Wakamurasaki
At daybreak an escort arrived from the capital, and Genji had to leave the northern hills. To the bishop and the others, sorry to see him go, he spoke this poem, promising to carry word of the mountain cherries back to the city. On its face it is a courteous tribute to the flowers; but the girl he had glimpsed was in his mind, and the poem carries a second sense.
"Miyabito" are those who serve at court, standing for the world of the capital. "Mountain cherry" is the blossom of the hills and at the same time the girl he found there. "Before the wind" means before the petals scatter, with the implication that a child's present form can be seen only now. Framed as a farewell greeting, the poem quietly holds his attachment.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Opening rarely the pine door of this deep hill where I keep shut in, I have looked upon the face of a flower never seen