More even than at
the time I knew that wretched
grief, today once more
the tears turn back toward the
days that are gone and past now
- Meaning
-
More than at the time I knew that wretched grief, today the tears turn back again toward the days now gone.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Eawase
Murasaki no Ue answered his poem with this one. Seeing the Suma and Akashi diary for the first time, she felt the old sorrow rise again. Genji said it was a thing to be shown to the Empress alone, and even as he chose the harmless leaves one by one, there was no moment when his thoughts did not go first to the house at Akashi. After this the contest moved to its main event before the Emperor.
"Ukime mishi" is having known wretched grief, the days of parting at Suma and Akashi. "That time" is then. "The days now past" is the past in the pictures. "Tears that turn back" are tears drawn back into the past. Where his poem set past against present, hers answers that the tears come more now than then, stating the paradox that pictures renew grief. The words for wretchedness carried from the Suma chapter appear here again.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-