知らざりし大海の原に流れ来て
ひとかたにやはものは悲しき
ひとかたにやはものは悲しき
- Roma-ji
-
Shirazarishi ōumi no hara ni nagarekite
hitokata ni ya wa mono wa kanashiki - English Translation
-
Come drifting out to
a plain of open sea I
had never known, is
my sorrow of one kind here,
and only of one kind now
- Meaning
- Having drifted out to a plain of open sea I never knew, is my sorrow of one kind only?
- Commentary
-
Part One: Suma
On the first day of the serpent in the third month, told that a man in his circumstances should perform a purification, Genji went down to the shore, summoned a diviner of the province, and had the rites carried out. Watching an elaborate paper figure set on a boat and sent out to sea, he felt his own case in it, and spoke this poem. Wind rose suddenly, and a terrible storm came on.
"The plain of the great sea" is the water in front of him. "Drifted here" lays the setting adrift of the figure over his own drifting from the capital. "Of one kind only?" is a rhetorical question expecting a denial. Identifying himself with the ritual effigy makes the exile that is this chapter's subject conscious again through a ceremonial act.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Tazuka naki kumoi ni hitori ne o zo naku
tsubasa narabeshi tomo o koitsutsu - Next Poem
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Yaoyorozu kami mo aware to omouramu
okaseru tsumi no sore to nakereba