優曇華の花待ち得たる心地して
深山桜に目こそ移らね
深山桜に目こそ移らね
- Roma-ji
-
Udonge no hana machietaru kokochi shite
miyamazakura ni me koso utsurane - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- It is as if I had waited and at last been granted the udumbara flower; my eyes will not turn even to the cherries of these deep hills.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Wakamurasaki
At the parting, the bishop answered Genji's poem with this one. Genji's visit itself, he says, is like meeting the flower that blooms once in three thousand years, so that mountain cherries are nothing beside it—praise of the guest in the highest terms available. Genji laughed and went down from the hills. The episode there closes, and the tale moves back to the capital.
The udumbara is a legendary flower said to bloom once in three thousand years, used for a piece of great and rare fortune. He takes Genji's "mountain cherry" and returns it as "cherry of the deep hills," carrying the exchange's words forward. Where Genji praised the blossom, the bishop answers that his guest surpasses it, using a term drawn from Buddhist scripture to make a greeting of the highest formality.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Miyabito ni yukite kataramu yamazakura
kaze yori saki ni kite mo mirubeku - Next Poem
-
Okuyama no matsu no toboso o mare ni akete
mada minu hana no kao o miru kana