故里に見し世の友を恋ひわびて
さへづることを誰か分くらむ
さへづることを誰か分くらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Furusato ni mishi yo no tomo o koiwabite
saezuru koto o tare ka wakuramu - English Translation
-
Longing in vain for
the friends of the world I knew
back in my old home,
I twitter on—but who is
there to tell what I would say
- Meaning
- Aching for the friends of the world I knew in my old home, I chatter on like a bird—but who is there to make out what I mean?
- Commentary
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Part One: Matsukaze
After the nun's poem, the lady of Akashi spoke this one, as if answering her mother's mood. The forlornness of leaving the shore of Akashi, where she had lived so long, for the unfamiliar ground of Oi, and her feeling for the people left behind in that old place, run together here. It is set down as a sentiment let slip amid a life in strange surroundings.
"Old home" is the shore of Akashi, the long-familiar place where she had lived. "The friends of the world I knew" are the old companions she had been close to there. "Saezuru" properly means the twittering of birds; here she likens her own aimless voicing of feeling to a bird's song. "Who is there to tell" states the forlorn thought that no one will make out her meaning or take in her heart. The loneliness of the new dwelling and the reluctance to leave the old ground are laid together in the poem.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Mi o kaete hitori kaereru yamazato ni
kikishi ni nitaru matsukaze zo fuku - Next Poem
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Chigirishi ni kawaranu koto no shirabe nite
taenu kokoro no hodo wa shiriki ya