Setting it beside
the one I long for, I look,
and my heart is not
eased at all—the dew only
gathers on the pink the more
- Meaning
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I look at it and set it beside the one I long for, and my heart is not eased; the dew only lies heavier on the pink.
- Commentary
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Part One: Momiji no Ga
In the fourth month the young prince was brought to the palace. The Emperor, delighted that the child's face was the image of Genji's, called Genji in and looked at the two of them together. At his innocent words both Genji and Fujitsubo were inwardly in a cold sweat. Afterward Genji likened the child to a pink and sent her this poem. Unable to leave it alone, she wrote a short reply.
"Setting it beside" means comparing, laying the child over the flower and over Fujitsubo herself. The pink has long been used for a small child, and the sound of the word carries the sense of stroking and cherishing. "Dewiness" is being close to tears, and the poem turns on a reversal: the flower he looked at for comfort only draws more tears. The pain of a man who cannot claim to be a father is concentrated into the single act of looking at a flower.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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