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
- Meaning
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The name you keep wrapped away may yet leak out—through this middle robe of ours, torn open in the pulling.
- Commentary
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Part One: Momiji no Ga
Late in the night To no Chujo forced his way in on Genji and the lady, feigning to draw a sword. Suspecting an elderly rival, Genji hid behind a screen, then recognized his friend and pinched hard at the arm holding the blade. To no Chujo could not keep from laughing, and once each had acknowledged the other they grappled over a robe until the seam tore open. With the torn garment before them, To no Chujo spoke this poem. Genji answered at once, and the two went off together, both in disarray.
"Tsutsumu" plays wrapping something in cloth against keeping a secret. "Naka no koromo" is the robe worn between the under- and outer garments, and "naka" sounds the bond between the two men. "Hokorobu," a seam coming apart, works with "wrap" and "robe" as an associated word. Out of nothing but the torn garment in front of him he builds the suggestion that a secret will get out—improvised in the middle of a scuffle, and yet exactly made.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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