袖濡るる恋路とかつは知りながら
おりたつ田子のみづからぞ憂き
おりたつ田子のみづからぞ憂き
- Roma-ji
-
Sode nururu koiji to katsu wa shirinagara
oritatsu tago no mizukara zo uki - English Translation
-
Knowing all the while
that it is a road of love
that wets the sleeves through,
the field hand who steps down in
is wretched by her own will
- Meaning
- Knowing well that this road of love is mire that soaks the sleeves, the field hand who steps down into it is wretched by her own doing.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Aoi
After the incident with the carriages, Rokujo no Miyasudokoro's mind was more disturbed than ever, and being unwell she had moved elsewhere for rites of healing. Genji came to call, spoke of his worry over Aoi no Ue, and apologized for having stayed away against his own wish. The next day only a note came, saying Aoi's illness had suddenly worsened; taking it for the usual excuse, Miyasudokoro sent this poem. He admired the hand and was left unable to settle his own feelings.
"Koiji," the road of love, also plays on the word for mire, which is what wets the sleeves. "Tago" is a worker in the paddies, one who steps down into the mud. No one forced her; she went down of her own accord—so the reproach is turned on herself rather than on him. Old commentaries have called this the finest poem in the tale, and the depth of this woman's self-awareness is fully in it.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- That heart of yours which wore the leaf seems to me all faithlessness, given that on this day you would meet with the whole crowd, one and all
- How I regret now ever having worn the leaf— a name and no more, nothing but a blade of grass that leads one on to nothing
- It is in shallows that you have stepped down, I think; as for me, my own road of love is deep enough to soak me quite through and through
- This soul of mine that, worn out with grief, goes drifting loose across the sky— bind it and hold it here, please, by your under-garment's hem