君にかく引き取られぬる帯なれば
かくて絶えぬる中とかこたむ
かくて絶えぬる中とかこたむ
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi ni kaku hikitorarenuru obi nareba
kakute taenuru naka to kakotamu - English Translation
-
Since it is a sash
that you have gone and drawn off
from me in this way,
I shall lay the blame on you
that the bond is broken now
- Meaning
- Since this is a sash you have taken off me in such a fashion, I shall lay it to your charge that the bond is broken.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Momiji no Ga
To no Chujo sent this back the moment the sash arrived. In mock reproach he says that it is because Genji took the sash that his connection with the lady is at an end. At the foot of the letter he added that there would be no talking his way out of it. Later in the day both men attended court, went through the business of state with straight faces, and had to hold back their laughter whenever their eyes met.
"Drawn off from me" answers his "have not even picked it up," and "the broken bond" ties to the sash through the shared word for breaking. "Kakotsu," to complain, shares its root with the "kagoto" of the other poem, so the exchange carries its words forward exactly. Neither gives an inch, and beneath it all lies an entirely easy friendship.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- At that roughened wave my heart is not stirred at all, and yet how should I not resent the shore that drew and let such a wave come in
- Were the two of you to break, I might be blamed for it—and fearing that, I have not so much as picked the pale blue sash up to look
- In a dark of heart that will never find an end I am left in gloom, seeing her go where the clouds dwell, so far above me now
- If I could look on that shape among the flowers as others all do, would there be any reserve, even a dew's worth, in me