Had I not leaned on
the help of the god who dwells
within the sea here,
I would be drifting out where
the eight hundred tides meet now
- Meaning
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Had I not had the help of the god who dwells in the sea, I would be drifting where the eight hundred tides run together.
- Commentary
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Part One: Akashi
With the gallery burned and the party moved into the kitchen hall, the wind at last fell and stars came out. Pushing open a brushwood door to look, Genji heard the fisherfolk who had gathered saying that had the wind held a little longer the high tide would have taken everything, and that the god's help had been no ordinary thing. This poem came out of that. Almost at once, dozing, he saw his father before him.
"The god who dwells in the sea" is the Sumiyoshi deity and the dragon king of the waters. "Yaoai" is the place where many currents run together and the water deepens. "I would have been drifting" is contrary to fact, stating his rescue from the other side. Where the last poem of the Suma chapter appealed to the gods for vindication, here he writes as one who has received their protection: a prayer spanning two chapters that has now been answered.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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