夕霧の晴るるけしきもまだ見ぬに
いぶせさそふる宵の雨かな
いぶせさそふる宵の雨かな
- Roma-ji
-
Yūgiri no haruru keshiki mo mada minu ni
ibuse sasouru yoi no ame kana - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- I have seen no sign yet that the evening mist will lift, and now the rain at nightfall draws out still more gloom.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suetsumuhana
After that night, the morning letter from Genji was slow in coming. In the ruined house the women fretted and worried on their mistress's behalf. Rain began to fall, and by evening there was no sign of it clearing. Taifu no Myobu, unable to watch any longer, sent this poem to Genji to prompt a visit. He did not come, and the lady herself sent a poem instead.
"Evening mist" is the haze that gathers at dusk, with Genji's unreadable mind folded into it. "Ibusesa" is a heart that will not clear, so that weather and feeling run through the same words. Piling rain on top of a mist that will not lift says that nothing is improving, and conveys the errand without a word of open urging. It is the restrained manner of a woman whose place is that of go-between.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- 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
- 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
- The icicles hung at the eaves where morning sun strikes have come untied, and why then should the ice there stay bound and hold itself closed