More than that man who
left his name behind him in
the land of Cathay,
shall I make my dwelling where
no one knows where I have gone
- Meaning
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Even more than that man who left his name in the land of Cathay, shall I keep house where no one knows where I have gone?
- Commentary
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Part One: Suma
With her face going with him the whole way and his chest tight, Genji boarded the boat. The days were long and the wind behind them, and by the hour of the monkey they reached the shore at Suma. To a man unused even to short journeys the strangeness and the desolation came together. Seeing the place called Oe no Tono fallen to ruin with only pines left to mark it, he spoke this poem.
"The man who left his name in Cathay" is a figure from Chinese story who died abroad. "A dwelling whose whereabouts none knows" is exactly that. Even that man's name survived, he says, and his own case may be worse—a comparison that states the desolation of exile. The ruin of Oe no Tono before him leads naturally into thoughts of the dwelling awaiting him at Suma.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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