松島の海人の苫屋もいかならむ
須磨の浦人しほたるるころ
須磨の浦人しほたるるころ
- Roma-ji
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Matsushima no ama no tomaya mo ika naramu
Suma no urabito shiotaruru koro - English Translation
-
How does it go now
with the fisher's rush-thatched hut
at Matsushima,
at a season when the man
of Suma's shore is in tears
- Meaning
- How do things stand at the fisherwoman's rush-thatched hut at Matsushima, in a season when the man of Suma's shore is wet with tears?
- Commentary
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Part One: Suma
When matters had quieted and the long rains came, Genji found his thoughts turning constantly to the capital and sent a messenger. The letters to the Nijo residence and to Fujitsubo, now a nun, he could hardly finish for weeping. This poem went with the letter to her. A reply came back in a somewhat warmer tone.
Matsushima is a poetic place-name that also carries the sound of waiting, and, through the fisherwoman, the word for a nun. "Tomaya" is a rough hut thatched with sedge, figuring her plain life since taking vows. "Shiotaru" plays being wet with brine against being wet with tears, and recurs throughout the chapter. Writing as one shore-dweller to another, he binds the capital and Suma in the same coastal vocabulary.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Furusato o mine no kasumi wa hedatsuredo
nagamuru sora wa onaji kumoi ka - Next Poem
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Korizuma no ura no mirume no yukashiki o
shio yaku ama ya ikaga omowamu