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
- Meaning
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Not knowing that there are partings even among the living, we made our vows, and I measured the term of my life by yours.
- Commentary
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Part One: Suma
On the day itself Genji spent the whole day talking with Murasaki no Ue and left, as always, deep in the night. Dressed down in hunting robes for the road, he coaxed her to come out to the edge of the room, since the moon had risen, and see him off. When at last she came, sunk in weeping, and sat in the moonlight, he spoke this poem. She answered.
"A parting among the living" says he had thought only death could part people. "Chiritsutsu" is making a vow—to be together as long as life lasted. "Setting the term of one's life by another" is exactly that. A vow that took only death into account now breaks on a parting between the living, and the poem names precisely what kind of separation this chapter is about.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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