あしわかの浦にみるめはかたくとも
こは立ちながらかへる波かは
こは立ちながらかへる波かは
- Roma-ji
-
Ashiwaka no ura ni mirume wa kataku tomo
ko wa tachinagara kaeru nami ka wa - English Translation
-
At Ashiwaka
bay the seaweed is hard to
find and hard to see,
am I a wave that stands here
and turns back with nothing gained
- Meaning
- Hard as it is to find the seaweed in Ashiwaka bay, am I a wave that merely rises and falls back with nothing?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Wakamurasaki
After the nun's death, when the period of mourning had passed, the girl returned to the house in the capital. Genji sent his condolences and pressed once more to take her in. But she was still a child, and her nurse Shonagon held that she ought properly to be handed to her father, Prince Hyobu, so nothing moved. Genji spoke this poem in the course of that exchange, showing he would not simply withdraw. Shonagon answered, and went on holding him off.
"Ashiwaka bay" is a shore where young reeds grow, and "waka," young, sounds the girl's childhood. "Mirume" is a seaweed whose name also plays on "eyes that see," so it means meeting. "A wave that rises and turns back" is the surf, standing for going away empty-handed. Piling associated words into one coastal scene, the poem holds together both the obstacle of her youth and his refusal to give up.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Ever since I heard that one cry of the young crane, the boat that labors among the reeds cannot bear how hard the going has grown
- When shall I pluck it with my own hand and behold this young field grass here that runs down in its roots to the purple gromwell's own root
- Not knowing the heart of the wave that comes to shore, for the jeweled weed at Waka bay to bend down would be a light thing indeed
- At the break of dawn, lost though I am in a sky where the mist is thick, here is the gate of the one I love, hard to pass on by