おほかたの秋の別れも悲しきに
鳴く音な添へそ野辺の松虫
鳴く音な添へそ野辺の松虫
- Roma-ji
-
Ōkata no aki no wakare mo kanashiki ni
naku ne na soe so nobe no matsumushi - English Translation
-
Even in itself
a parting in autumn is
a sad enough thing—
do not add your crying to
it, pine crickets of the field
- Meaning
- A parting in autumn is sad enough on its own; do not add your crying to it, pine crickets of the field.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Sakaki
Miyasudokoro answered his poem with this one. A cold wind was blowing and the pine crickets were crying themselves hoarse; the poem takes the scene straight in. With nothing but regret between them, and the light growing awkward, they parted. Left behind, she could not keep her resolve, and sank into thought over what remained.
"Okata no" means in general, even at the best of times, invoking the received idea that autumn partings are sad. "Do not add your crying" is a prohibition: do not lay more on top of that sadness. "Matsumushi" also sounds the word for waiting, so the years of waiting can be read into it. She states no feeling of her own and only addresses the insects, and her restraint is entirely in that.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Because I thought this the place where the maidens are, drawn by the fragrance of the sakaki leaves, I sought it out and broke it off
- A parting at dawn is always a thing of dew, but this—here is one such as the world has not known, and such an autumn sky too
- If the land's own gods, who keep the eight islands safe, have hearts in them too, let them judge between us in a parting we have not willed
- If the land's own gods are to judge between you two up there in the sky, then let them first look into the idle words you have said