人妻はあなわづらはし東屋の
真屋のあまりも馴れじとぞ思ふ
真屋のあまりも馴れじとぞ思ふ
- Roma-ji
-
Hitozuma wa ana wazurawashi azumaya no
maya no amari mo nareji to zo omou - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- Another man's wife—what a troublesome business; like the eaves of this eastern hut, I think I had better not grow too close.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Momiji no Ga
On a cool evening after a shower, Genji was walking near the Unmeiden when he came upon the lady playing her lute. He approached humming the saibara song "The Eastern Hut" under his breath, and she sang back its latter half. When she followed this with her poem of complaint, he found it too much and answered with this one, holding her off. He thought of simply leaving, but reconsidered as too unkind, and stayed to trade a few light remarks. To no Chujo, who had long wanted to catch Genji out, was watching the whole of it.
"Eastern hut," "maya," and "amari" are all taken from the words of the saibara song, showing that the whole exchange is built on that one piece of music. "The amari of the maya" is the edge of the eaves, and "amari" also carries the sense of "excessively." Even opening with "another man's wife" picks up a phrase from the end of the song, so that his refusal to be drawn in is made out of the very words she had been singing. The scene is comic, and the handling of allusion and double meaning is exact.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- 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
- The name you wrap up and keep hidden may yet leak out and be let known— through this middle robe of ours that we tore open pulling
- Knowing all the while that it hides nothing at all, you have come here in this thin summer robe, and I read that thinness as your heart