The year comes to its
end, the rock spring's water too
is bound shut with ice,
and the faces we once saw
are fading away as well
- Meaning
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The year ends, the water of the rock spring is sealed with ice, and the face we used to see is fading from us too.
- Commentary
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Part One: Sakaki
After Genji's poem, Omyobu, who served Fujitsubo, spoke this one. Many more poems passed, the text says, but not enough to be worth setting down. Fujitsubo left the palace she knew for the Sanjo residence, thinking back over the years since she had last lived away from court. The new year came in quietly, and Genji too kept indoors in low spirits.
"Iwai" is a spring welling between rocks. "Sealed with ice" carries forward the frozen pond of Genji's poem. "Aseyuku" is to fade, to lose color, so that a reflection sealed under ice and a memory growing dim are laid together. From the vantage of one who serves, the poem grieves that the memory of the late Emperor is being lost.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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