世をうみにここらしほじむ身となりて
なほこの岸をえこそ離れね
なほこの岸をえこそ離れね
- Roma-ji
-
Yo o umi ni kokora shiojimu mi to narite
nao kono kishi o e koso hanarene - English Translation
-
Weary of the world,
I have become one soaked through
with brine these many
years on this shore—and even
so I cannot leave this bank
- Meaning
- Weary of the world, I have become one soaked in brine these many years on this shore, and still I cannot get free of this bank.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Akashi
The novice said how sorry he was that he could not accompany the party, screwing up his face to weep as he took his leave. The darkness in a parent's heart would only confuse him further, he said, so let him at least go as far as the provincial border; and he hinted that Genji might remember his daughter now and then. This poem went with those words, and Genji answered.
"Yo o umi ni" is finding the world hard to bear, with the word for sea inside it. "Kokora" is for many years, or a great deal. "Shiojimu" is being soaked in brine and also growing used to a place over long habitation. "This bank" is the shore at Akashi and also the near shore of Buddhist teaching, the world of attachment. A man under vows who cannot free himself from love of his daughter is drawn through the overlap of religious and coastal vocabulary.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Katami ni zo kaubekarikeru au koto no
hikazu hedaten naka no koromo o - Next Poem
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Miyako ideshi haru no nageki ni otorame ya
toshi furu ura o wakarenuru aki