露けさのむかしに似たる旅ごろも
田蓑の島の名にはかくれず
田蓑の島の名にはかくれず
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuyukesa no mukashi ni nitaru tabigoromo
Tamino no shima no na ni wa kakurezu - English Translation
-
This travelling robe,
as wet with dew as it was
in the days gone by—
the name of Tamino isle
is no rain-cape to hide it
- Meaning
- This travelling robe, as wet with tears as in those old days—the name of Tamino island is no rain-cape that can hide it.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Miotsukushi
Having read her reply, Genji performed the purification at Tamino island. The day was drawing in, the evening tide came up, and the cranes in the inlet called without sparing their voices. Perhaps because the hour was so full of feeling, he wished he could see her without caring who noticed. It was then that he spoke this poem. Excursions filled the road home, and still his mind stayed with her.
"The dew-wet past" is the years of makeshift living at Suma and Akashi. "Tabigoromo," the travelling robe, has stood for this man's exile since the Akashi chapter. Tamino is a poetic island at the mouth of the Yodo, and since "mino" is a straw rain-cape the name gives the conceit that his tears cannot be hidden. The poem draws on Tsurayuki's verse about passing Tamino island in the rain and finding no shelter in the name.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- As a sign that I have spent myself in longing, channel-marker deep, we have come round and met here— the bond that runs in this bay
- Being of no count, nothing at Naniwa comes to any good here— why then did I spend myself and begin to love at all?
- In a sky where snow and sleet fall without a break, the one who is gone must be flying overhead— and sad is that house to think
- Unable to melt, I go on falling, and that is the sorrow—all darkened over, in a world where I do not feel myself