Out of season, this
bloom that opened this morning
seems to have been made
to droop by the summer rain
before it could show its glow
- Meaning
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This bloom that opened out of season this morning seems to have drooped in the summer rain before it could show any glow at all.
- Commentary
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Part One: Sakaki
Genji answered the Captain's poem with this one. Saying he was past his prime, he tried to turn it aside by playing the drunkard, and the others called him on it and pressed the cup on him. Every verse composed that day was in praise of him. He grew a little pleased with himself and murmured a line about the son of King Wen and the brother of King Wu.
"Toki narade" is out of season, naming a rose that has bloomed early. "The summer rain" is the rain falling that day. "Seems to have drooped" is a guess, and he lays it over his own present state. Taking the flower with which he was praised and turning it to self-deprecation, he says, under cover of a blossom, that he is in political eclipse.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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