Not shallowly, as
the name of Mount Asaka
says, do I love you—
then why does the mountain well
keep its reflection so far
- Meaning
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I do not think of you shallowly, whatever Mount Asaka's name may say—so why does the mountain well keep its reflection so far from me?
- Commentary
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Part One: Wakamurasaki
With the nun's answers giving him nothing, Genji tucked a small folded note into his letter and sent a poem to the girl herself, telling a child that his feeling was not shallow. She was too young to write a reply, and her nurse, Shonagon, wrote one in her place. His suit went on, but came to nothing while the nun lived.
"Mount Asaka" is a poetic place-name of the north, and its name leads into "shallow." The "mountain well" is a shallow spring in the hills, said to reflect a face poorly for that reason, and used for distance between people. Building "shallow" and "kept apart" out of a place-name and its associated words follows older poetic practice, and though he knows how young she is, he does not relax the form of a proper love letter.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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