おほかたの憂きにつけては厭へども
いつかこの世を背き果つべき
いつかこの世を背き果つべき
- Roma-ji
-
Ōkata no uki ni tsukete wa itoedomo
itsu ka kono yo o somukihatsubeki - English Translation
-
In the general
wretchedness of things I turn
away from the world,
and yet when shall I be done
with turning my back on it
- Meaning
- I have turned from the world for the general wretchedness of it; but when shall I be wholly done with turning away?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Sakaki
Fujitsubo answered his poem with this one. With people close at hand she could not open what was in her mind, and Omyobu's tact shaped what was passed on. Even having taken vows, she cannot cut off her feeling for the Heir Apparent, and the poem says the murk remains in her. Genji withdrew with his grief undiminished, and lay awake alone that night.
"The general wretchedness" is the misery of the world at large. "Itou" is to hold in aversion and turn away, the same word used in Buddhism for renouncing this defiled world. "To turn one's back wholly" is to have finished with it entirely. Formally she has left the world, and she says her heart is still clouded, setting her own "be wholly done" against his "wander." That she refuses to treat her vows as a settlement, and admits she is still in confusion, is the measure of her honesty.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Tsuki no sumu kumoi o kakete shitau tomo
kono yo no yami ni nao ya madowamu - Next Poem
-
Nagame karu ama no sumika to miru kara ni
mazu shiotaruru Matsu ga Urashima