The crane that cries out
hidden away on an isle
of no account here—
today too there is no one
to ask how it is with her
- Meaning
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The crane crying from behind an island of no account—even today there is no one to ask how she fares.
- Commentary
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Part One: Miotsukushi
Akashi no Kimi answered his poem with this one. Her letter says she passes her days shut in with her own thoughts and keeps alive on his rare messages alone, and asks that something be settled for the child's security. Watching Genji read it over and sigh, Murasaki no Ue murmured a line of an old poem and let her displeasure show.
"Kazu naranu" is of no account, and the "mi" of "mishima" also means self, laying her own worthlessness over the island. The crane is the child, and being a bird of long life it answers his celebratory conceit. "Ikani" takes up his pun on the fiftieth day. He had figured the child as seaweed; she answers with an island and a crane, so that the two exchange words within one seascape.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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