琴の音に弾きとめらるる綱手縄
たゆたふ心君知るらめや
たゆたふ心君知るらめや
- Roma-ji
-
Koto no ne ni hikitomeraruru tsunadenawa
tayutau kokoro kimi shirurame ya - English Translation
-
The towing rope of
our boat, held back and drawn in
by the sound of strings—
this heart of mine that wavers,
do you know any of it
- Meaning
- Like a towing rope held back by the sound of a koto, my heart wavers—do you know anything of it?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suma
About this time the Dazai Deputy's party passed Suma on its way up to the capital from his post. Hearing that Genji was there, the daughters felt shy even inside the boat and took pains with their appearance. The Gosechi dancer especially was sorry to be towed past, and when the sound of a koto came to them on the wind the whole party wept. Presently this poem was sent across to him.
"The sound of the koto" is Genji playing. "Tsunade-nawa" is the rope by which a boat is towed, taking the scene of the passing boat directly into the poem. "Tayutau" is to sway or hesitate, playing the slack of a rope against a mind that cannot settle. She hangs her wish to stay on one concrete object, and puts a whole feeling into a moment of passing. She adds that he must not think her forward.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- While I look at it I am comforted a while, though the moon's city, where I shall meet them again, lies far off from here indeed
- It is not simply as a wretched thing alone that I feel all this— and so my sleeves are wet on the one side and the other
- If the towing rope in the hand had wavered from a heart that felt it, would you have passed on by these waves on the shore of Suma
- As often as the brushwood burns in the huts of the mountain people, so often would I have them come, the folk of home I love