鐘つきてとぢめむことはさすがにて
答へまうきぞかつはあやなき
答へまうきぞかつはあやなき
- Roma-ji
-
Kane tsukite tojimemu koto wa sasuga nite
kotae mauki zo katsu wa ayanaki - English Translation
-
To strike the bell and
so close the matter would be
more than I can do,
and yet an answer comes hard—
which, to me, makes little sense
- Meaning
- To ring the bell and close the matter is more than I can bring myself to do, and yet answering comes hard—which makes little sense even to me.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suetsumuhana
Since the lady could not bring herself to answer at all, her foster-sister Jiju, waiting nearby, imitated her voice and replied in her place. A young woman with a quick mind, she was trying to cover for her mistress's silence. From the reply Genji at least learned that someone in the house could respond. That night he went in to the lady, and was left at a loss by how little she gave back.
"Ringing the bell to close it" draws on the practice of ending a doctrinal debate at a service with a bell, standing for breaking off the conversation. "An answer comes hard" is simply reluctance to reply. The poem sets out being caught between the two, and ends by admitting that even the speaker finds it illogical. Though written for another, it names the silent lady's position exactly.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- The light that falls on every village alike we see, but who is it that goes seeking Irusa, the hill where the moon goes in
- How many times now have I given way before your unbroken hush, trusting that you have not said the words: do not speak to me
- Though I know it well, that not to speak may say more than speaking would say, to be shut out like this is a hard thing to bear indeed
- I have not yet seen any sign that the evening mist will ever clear, and here is the rain at dusk drawing out more gloom in me