わきてこの暮こそ袖は露けけれ
もの思ふ秋はあまた経ぬれど
もの思ふ秋はあまた経ぬれど
- Roma-ji
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Wakite kono kure koso sode wa tsuyukekere
mono omou aki wa amata henuredo - English Translation
-
This evening above
all others my sleeve is wet
with the dew of it,
though I have passed through many
autumns of grieving before
- Meaning
- This evening above all others my sleeve is wet, though I have passed through many an autumn of grieving before.
- Commentary
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Part One: Aoi
In his idleness Genji thought that the Asagao princess, if anyone, would understand what he felt that day, and wrote after dark. Long as the gap had been, the correspondence had become an accepted thing, and the letter was taken in to her without objection. Written on Chinese paper the color of the sky, the poem was in a hand more careful than usual. She answered briefly.
"Wakite" means especially, above all. "Tsuyukeshi," close to tears, is a word used again and again through this chapter. "Many an autumn of grieving before" sets this year's autumn apart from all the others. The poem is not addressed to her grief but pleads his own, and it shows a side of Genji that, even at such a time, does not let his interest in her lapse.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Ima mo mite nakanaka sode o kutasu kana
kakiho arenishi yamatonadeshiko - Next Poem
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Akigiri ni tachiokurenu to kikishi yori
shigururu sora mo ikaga to zo omou