たゆまじき筋を頼みし玉かづら
思ひのほかにかけはなれぬる
思ひのほかにかけはなれぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Tayumajiki suji o tanomishi tamakazura
omoi no hoka ni kakehanarenuru - English Translation
-
The jewelled vine whose
strands I trusted would not slack—
and now, past all thought,
it has come away from me
and hangs apart, cut adrift
- Meaning
- The jewelled vine whose strands I trusted would never slacken has, past all expectation, come away and hangs apart from me.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Yomogiu
While Genji was at Suma and Akashi the Hitachi Prince's house fell into ruin, and Suetsumuhana lived on in it among the mugwort. Her aunt, now wife of the Dazai Deputy, came to fetch her before going down to the provinces, meaning to make her a servant to her own daughters. When she would not stir, the aunt tried at least to carry off her gentlewoman Jiju. Parting from the woman who had served her so long, Suetsumuhana gave her a hairpiece made from her own fallen hair and a jar of incense, and spoke this poem. Jiju answered.
"Strands that would not slacken" is a bond that will not break, and "suji" means both a strand of hair and a line of kinship. "Tamakazura" is the poetic word for a trailing vine, naming both the hairpiece and Jiju herself; "slacken," "strand," and "hang" all belong to it. "Kakehanaru" is to be carried far off, joining a vine's hanging to a heart's departure. The hair that is the actual gift stands at the center of the poem, and behind it lies a poverty so complete that not even a robe could be spared.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- 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
- Though the jewelled vine be severed, it will not end; by the gods who guard the offerings on the road I go, I will swear it so
- My sleeve has no time to dry, longing as it does for the one who's gone, and now the drops from these eaves in ruin are added too