Does the morning mist
rise up on Akashi bay,
where you pass the night
through in your grieving? So my
thoughts go out to you from here
- Meaning
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Does the morning mist rise over Akashi bay, where you pass your nights in grief? So my thoughts go out to you.
- Commentary
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Part One: Akashi
Genji sent a letter to Akashi no Kimi by the people who had escorted him to the capital and were now going back. He kept it out of Murasaki no Ue's sight and wrote it with care. This poem went with it, following a question about how she was passing the nights when the waves came in. A letter from the Gosechi dancer arrived immediately afterward.
"Nageki tsutsu" is grieving as one goes on. "Akashi" is passing a night through to morning and also the place-name, the pun used again and again in this chapter. "Asagiri" is the mist of morning, drawing on the old idea, found as far back as the Man'yoshu, that sighs raise mist. The name of the place she is in is used as the word for how she spends her nights, so that one word joins two people far apart.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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