Though thoughts burn in me
like the weed the fisherfolk
rake up and set fire,
now there is no shell of worth
and I will not even blame
- Meaning
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Though my thoughts burn like the seaweed the fisherfolk rake up and set alight, nothing can come of it now, and I will not even reproach you.
- Commentary
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Part One: Akashi
Akashi no Kimi answered his poem with this one. She wept quietly, and though she said little, what she did say in reply was said with real feeling. To announce that one will not reproach is the strongest reproach there is, and her restrained manner of composing shows clearly here.
"Kakitsumete" is raking together. "Taku mo" is seaweed set burning, and the "hi" of "omohi" is also fire, laying the burning weed over the feeling in her breast. "Kai naki" is worthless and also carries the word for shell, tying it to the shore. "Urami" is resentment with the word for bay inside it. Four puns are worked into a poem that announces the giving up of reproach, and the closeness of the technique is itself the measure of her restraint.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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