Living in a shade
that knows no season, like the
seaweed of the deep—
how is she to tell this day
from another, iris day?

Meaning

Living like seaweed in a shade that knows no season, how is she to tell this day from any other, on this day of irises?

Commentary

Part One: Miotsukushi

　Counting privately, Genji found that the fifth of the fifth month would be the child's fiftieth day. He regretted how splendidly she might have been celebrated in the capital, and sent a messenger with orders to arrive on the day itself. The man reached Akashi on the fifth with practical gifts and this poem. The letter also urged her to decide on coming up to the city, since things could not go on as they were. She answered.

　"Miru" is a seaweed that grows in the shadow of rocks, standing for the child. "Knowing no season" is a life buried in the country. "Ayame" is telling one thing from another and also the iris of the fifth-day festival. "Ikani" is "how" and also the word for a fiftieth day. Festival plant and count of days are bound in a double pun, and a father worries over a child far from the ceremonial year of the capital.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Living in a shade that knows no season, like the seaweed of the deep— how is she to tell this day from another, iris day?

Living in a shade
that knows no season, like the
seaweed of the deep—
how is she to tell this day
from another, iris day?