言はぬをも言ふにまさると知りながら
おしこめたるは苦しかりけり
おしこめたるは苦しかりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Iwanu o mo iu ni masaru to shirinagara
oshikometaru wa kurushikarikeri - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- I know well enough that silence can say more than speech, and still to be shut out like this is hard to bear.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suetsumuhana
Even after Jiju's reply the lady herself said nothing. Genji pressed his way into the room, but her manner did not change and no words passed between them. This poem states his frustration. He spent the night with her, found nothing of the charm he had hoped for, and afterward let a long while go by without sending the customary morning letter.
"Not speaking may surpass speaking" draws on an idea familiar at the time, that silence can say more than words. "Oshikometaru" is being shut up and saying nothing. He grants the value of silence as a proposition and then says it is unbearable in fact, so that the poem holds the gap between what he understands and what he feels. It also forecasts a relationship that will keep failing to meet.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- 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
- 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
- Think of this village waiting for the moon on a night that will not clear, even if you do not gaze with the same heart as we do