笹分けば人やとがめむいつとなく
駒なつくめる森の木隠れ
駒なつくめる森の木隠れ
- Roma-ji
-
Sasa wakeba hito ya togamemu itsu to naku
koma natsukumeru mori no kogakure - English Translation
-
Were I to push through
the bamboo grass, some might well
find fault with me there—
in that shade of the forest
where horses are always tame
- Meaning
- If I pushed in through the bamboo grass, someone would surely object—in that forest shade where horses are always made welcome.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Momiji no Ga
Genji answered her poem with this one. He pretends to take up the invitation while turning it aside: since other men visit her, his coming would cause trouble. She showed no offense and continued to press him. In time To no Chujo burst in on one of their meetings, and a commotion followed.
"Pushing through the bamboo grass" is making one's way in, standing for paying a visit. The "horse" is another man, and "the shade of the forest" is the lady herself. He takes her "horse" and returns it as the exchange required, while shifting its sense from "the horse you are used to" to "some other man's horse"—a deft move. It is a refusal that gives no offense and turns everything to laughter, and Genji's ease shows in the handling.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Thinking of the child as kin to that dew which wets the sleeve you speak of, I find the yamato pink is not one I can put off
- If you would but come, I would cut and feed it to your familiar horse, even though the under-leaf is past the height of its prime
- There is surely no one who would stand and be wet at this eastern hut, and how tiresomely the rain comes dripping down on it here
- Another man's wife— ah, what a troublesome thing; at this eastern hut, at its eaves, I think I will not grow too familiar here