ひとりしてなづるは袖のほどなきに
覆るばかりのかげをしぞまつ
覆るばかりのかげをしぞまつ
- Roma-ji
-
Hitori shite nazuru wa sode no hodo naki ni
ōru bakari no kage o shi zo matsu - English Translation
-
Stroking her alone,
my sleeve has not the breadth for
what it must cover;
I wait for a shade that would
spread wide enough to cover
- Meaning
- Raising her by myself, my sleeve is too narrow to cover her; I wait for a shade broad enough to cover her wholly.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Miotsukushi
Akashi no Kimi answered his poem with this one. The nurse's party had arrived, the novice bowed toward the capital in his joy, and she herself, sunk in brooding for months, recovered enough to lift her head from her pillow. Since the messenger was in haste she set down a few of her thoughts and sent this. From then on the child was strangely much in Genji's mind.
"Nazuru" takes up his own word, keeping the etiquette of exchange. "My sleeve has no breadth" is a modest way of naming her own small means. "A shade wide enough to cover" is his protection. Against the vast span of his heavenly maiden and her rock she sets the narrow measure of her own sleeve, and her sense of the distance in rank is at work here as well.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Itsushika mo sode uchikakemu otomego ga
yo o hete nazuru iwa no oisaki - Next Poem
-
Omoudochi nabiku kata ni wa arazu tomo
ware zo keburi ni sakidachinamashi