Were there no distant
other to hold your boat fast,
then indeed I might
wait for you as the husband
who will come home tomorrow
- Meaning
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Were there no distant other to hold your boat fast, then I might wait for you as the husband who comes home tomorrow.
- Commentary
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Part One: Usugumo
With the new year come, Genji made ready to visit Akashi no Kimi at Oi. He dressed with more care than usual, in a cherry-colored robe deep with incense, and taking his leave in the evening light he looked especially fine. Murasaki no Ue saw him off with troubled feelings. When the child clung to the hem of his trousers, longing after him, he found her dear and murmured "I will come home tomorrow" as he made to leave. At that Murasaki no Ue, waiting at the gallery door, sent him this poem through her gentlewoman Chujo no Kimi. Genji smiled and answered.
"The distant other who holds your boat fast" is Akashi no Kimi at Oi, against the world of old poems in which a far-off woman keeps a boat from leaving. "Were there none" is if only there were not. "The husband who will come home tomorrow" takes up Genji's own murmured "I will come home tomorrow." Were there only no woman to hold him back, she could wait at ease—so runs the reproach, naming Akashi no Kimi obliquely as "the distant other," and wrapping jealousy in graceful wit.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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