Even that one word
you spoke from so far away
at our parting turns
back on itself, and the thing
is sorrowful now indeed
- Meaning
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Even that single word you spoke from far off at our parting turns back on itself now, and the thing is sorrowful indeed.
- Commentary
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Part One: Eawase
The former Priestess answered the Retired Emperor's poem with this one. Pressed by Genji to reply, she felt great shame, but remembering how graceful and beautiful he had been at the rite before her descent to Ise, and how he had wept, and setting down too the memory of her dead mother Rokujo no Miyasudokoro, she was moved and returned this. Genji longed to see the reply, but could not.
"Wakaru tote" is at parting, meaning the descent to Ise. "Spoke from far off" takes up "do not turn back toward the capital" from the Sakaki chapter. "Hitokoto" is that one word. "Kaerite" plays returning to the capital against turning back on itself. Where his poem raised the rite of the farewell comb, hers takes up the same words to answer, saying that now she is back, the words are sad. The woman who first found her own voice at her mother's death in the Miotsukushi chapter here answers in a public exchange.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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