咲きてとく散るは憂けれどゆく春は
花の都を立ち帰り見よ
花の都を立ち帰り見よ
- Roma-ji
-
Sakite toku chiru wa ukeredo yuku haru wa
hana no miyako o tachikaeri mi yo - English Translation
-
It is hard that they
bloom and scatter so quickly,
but as spring goes on,
come back and look once again
on the flowering city here
- Meaning
- It is hard that they bloom and fall so soon; but as the spring goes by, come back and look on this city of flowers again.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suma
Omyobu answered on the Heir Apparent's behalf. She says that his own reply is not something she could send on, and reports how forlorn the child seemed. From that day the loss of Genji from the palace was mourned by great and small alike.
"Blooming and falling at once" answers the cherry branch to which the poem was tied. "Yuku haru" is the spring going by, that is, the passage of time. "The city of flowers" returns his "flowers of the spring capital." "Come back and look" is an imperative, and so an encouragement: he will certainly return. Standing between them, she speaks for the child and offers hope at the same time.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- How does he look on me now, that departed soul— and even the moon I gaze at, likening it to him, has gone behind cloud
- When shall I again look on the flowers of the capital in spring, being now a mountain man who has lost his hour at last
- Not knowing that there are partings even in life, we made our promise, and I set the term of my own life by another's life
- With this life of mine, which I would not grudge at all, I would buy the right to hold back for a little the parting here before me