水鶏だにおどろかさずはいかにして
荒れたる宿に月をいれまし
荒れたる宿に月をいれまし
- Roma-ji
-
Kuina dani odorokasazu wa ika ni shite
aretaru yado ni tsuki o iremashi - English Translation
-
Were it not even
for the water rail's knocking
startling me awake,
how should I let the moonlight
into a house so ruined?
- Meaning
- If the water rail had not knocked and startled me, how could I have let the moon into so ruined a house?
- Commentary
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Part One: Miotsukushi
Occupied with keeping Murasaki no Ue content, Genji had let his visits to Hanachirusato lapse; in the quiet of the rains he roused himself and went, after three years. The house had fallen further into ruin and was desolate almost past bearing. He paid his respects first to the Reikeiden Consort and came round to the west door late in the night. Under a hazy moon, hearing a water rail call close by, she spoke this poem.
The water rail's cry was likened in old poems to knocking at a door, and mistaken for a caller. "Dani" is at least, if only. "The ruined house" is her own. The moon is Genji. Instead of stating a reproach she turns it into the thought that without a bird misheard there would have been no visit at all, and her reticent manner of composing shows clearly.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Kazu naranu mishimagakure ni naku tazu o
kyō mo ika ni to tou hito zo naki - Next Poem
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Oshinabete tataku kuina ni odorokaba
uwa no sora naru tsuki mo koso ire