Will people pass on
this as a tale of the world,
though I make of my
wretched life beyond compare
a dream from which none awakes
- Meaning
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Will people hand this down as a tale of the world, even if I make of my incomparable misery a dream that never ends?
- Commentary
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Part One: Wakamurasaki
Fujitsubo answered Genji's poem with this one. She says nothing at all of the meeting itself, only of her fear that it will be handed down as gossip. As an emperor's consort she knows better than anyone that discovery would destroy her. Afterward, tormented by her pregnancy, she avoided any meeting with Genji with the strictest care.
"Yogatari" is what the world tells of a thing, that is, rumor. "A dream from which none awakes" takes up his "dream," and holds the wish that if it never ends it will never have been real. But "even if I make of it" follows at once, showing her resignation: convince herself as she may, the talk will not stop. Where he wrote of private feeling, she writes of public consequence, and the exchange sets their positions in plain contrast.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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