That you too should know
what moves the heart in deep night—
like the setting moon
it is no common bond, this,
and so I take it to be
- Meaning
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That you should know what stirs the heart so late at night—like the sinking moon, this is no ordinary bond, or so I believe.
- Commentary
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Part One: Hana no En
When the banquet ended and the company had withdrawn, Genji, still flushed with wine, went to see whether he could reach Fujitsubo, but every door was shut. Turning instead toward the gallery of the Kokiden, he found a young woman coming along, murmuring in a lovely voice an old poem in praise of the hazy moon. He caught her sleeve, and they were joined that night. Without knowing who she was, he spoke this poem. She answered, and they parted after exchanging fans, neither having given a name.
"The setting moon" is the moon going down in the west, taking the scene of that night directly into the poem. "Oboroke naranu," out of the ordinary, plays on the haze of the moon, taking up the poem about the hazy moon she had been reciting. Reading a chance meeting as a bond from a former life is the standard shape of a love poem of the period; here that standard shape is set on the wholly unusual footing of a man who does not know the woman's name.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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