How far off it is,
the place my thoughts go out to—
from a shore I had
never known I have gone on
further, following the shores
- Meaning
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From far off my thoughts go out to you—having moved on from a shore I never knew to one beyond it, following the coast.
- Commentary
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Part One: Akashi
Brought to Akashi by the novice's boat, Genji wrote a number of letters to the capital once his mind had steadied a little. The reply to the Nijo residence he set down and took up again and again, wiping his eyes, in a manner plainly unlike his letters to anyone else. This poem went with it. Seeing the disorder of the hand, his men understood how deep the feeling ran.
"Haruka ni mo" is at a great remove. "The shore I had never known" is Suma. "Ochi" is the far side, beyond—Akashi, further still. "Uradutai" is moving from bay to bay along the coast. Using the word for shore twice shows the distances laid one on another, and states his position, ever further from the capital, purely through the vocabulary of terrain, with no place-name given.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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