嘆きわび空に乱るるわが魂を
結びとどめよしたがへのつま
結びとどめよしたがへのつま
- Roma-ji
-
Nagekiwabi sora ni midaruru waga tama o
musubitodome yo shitagae no tsuma - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- Bind and hold down this soul of mine, worn out with grief and drifting loose across the sky, by knotting the hem of your under-robe.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Aoi
Aoi no Ue was tormented by spirits, and as her time came she remained in danger. One spirit would not yield to any exorcist, and at last it asked for a moment's rest and said it had something to say to Genji. Admitted behind the curtain, he heard this poem spoken in Aoi's own body but in another voice altogether. From the voice and the manner he knew it for Rokujo no Miyasudokoro, and went cold.
"The hem of the under-robe" refers to a belief of the time that a soul leaving the body could be held back by knotting the hem of a garment. "Midaruru" is a soul scattering loose, that is, a mind out of its senses. That the poem asks not for revenge but for rescue—hold my soul here—keeps this scene from being a simple tale of a vengeful ghost. Even as a possessing spirit she has not stopped reaching for him, and that is what makes her tragedy so deep.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- 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
- The smoke that has climbed and gone I cannot tell out from the rest of it, and yet the whole of the sky where the clouds are moves my heart
- Since a limit holds, this robe of pale ink is light in its color, yet the tears have gone and made of my sleeves a deep pool indeed