伊勢島や潮干の潟に漁りても
いふかひなきは我が身なりけり
いふかひなきは我が身なりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Iseshima ya shiohi no kata ni asarite mo
iu kai naki wa waga mi narikeri - English Translation
-
On Ise's islands,
gathering on the tidal
flats when the sea draws
back, the one who finds no shell
worth having is myself here
- Meaning
- Gathering on the tidal flats of Ise when the sea draws back, the one who comes up with nothing worth speaking of is myself.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suma
Several poems were written out as they came in Miyasudokoro's letter, and this is one of them. It ran to four or five sheets of white Chinese paper rolled together, and the ink work was worth looking at. Genji thought back on how a moment's carelessness had wounded her and driven her down to Ise, and now held her precious and felt he had wronged her.
"Ise shima" is the islands of the Ise sea. "The tidal flats at low water" is where shells are gathered. "Iu kai naki" means not worth speaking of and plays on the word for shell, tying it to the flats. She uses the same pun as in her Aoi-chapter poem, now in the seascape of Ise, and the consistency of her manner is clear.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Set it beside the sleeve of the shore man who draws the brine, and compare: this night robe of mine, with all the sea-road lying between
- Think, from that Suma shore where they say the sleeves drip brine, of the woman of Ise who cuts the weed and gathers her bitterness
- Into that small boat the people of Ise row over the waves' backs I would have climbed, had I not had this bitter weed to cut
- Among the driftwood the fisherfolk heap up, which is grief on grief here, how long shall I sit and gaze, soaked through, on Suma's own shore