It is my own heart
that wets my sleeves on both counts—
and this too, this voice
that calls out to let us know
the night is breaking open
- Meaning
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It is my own heart that wets my sleeves on this side and that—and this voice too, calling out that day has come.
- Commentary
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Part One: Sakaki
Oborozukiyo had become Mistress of the Household and lived brilliantly at court, but her secret meetings with Genji went on as before. Watching for a gap while the Emperor kept a fast during the Rites of the Five Altars, Genji slipped into the same gallery room as before. As the light began to come, a night guard was heard calling the hour, and she spoke this poem. He answered, and left in some disquiet.
"Kokoro kara" means the cause is her own heart—she lays it on no one else. "Katagata" is on this side and that, several reasons at once: the joy of the meeting, the grief of parting, the fear that attends a forbidden love. "The voice that says day has come" is the guard calling the watch, taking the sound of the room into the verse. Under a fragile manner, an exact awareness of her own position shows.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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