The geese that of their
own will left the eternal
land and cry as they
go—how far off, like clouds, I
used to think them from myself

Meaning

The geese that left the eternal land of their own accord and cry as they fly—how remote, like clouds, I once thought them.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　The Minbu no Taifu followed Yoshikiyo with this poem. He had once watched the geese migrate as something that had nothing to do with him, he says, and now he and the others are in exactly that position. Those gathered there were the four or five men who had followed Genji without regard for which way the world was turning.

　"Kokoro kara" is of one's own accord. "Tokoyo" is the eternal land from which migratory birds come, here the place one started from. "Kumo no yoso" is beyond the clouds, the standard figure for another person's business. Laying the geese, who left home by their own choosing, over Genji's voluntary withdrawal to Suma, the poem quietly accepts his lord's decision from a retainer's vantage.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The geese that of their own will left the eternal land and cry as they go—how far off, like clouds, I used to think them from myself

The geese that of their
own will left the eternal
land and cry as they
go—how far off, like clouds, I
used to think them from myself