行きて見て明日もさね来むなかなかに
遠方人は心置くとも
遠方人は心置くとも
- Roma-ji
-
Yukite mite asu mo sane komu nakanaka ni
ochikatabito wa kokoro oku tomo - English Translation
-
I will go and see
her, and tomorrow indeed
come home—even though
the distant other should, if
anything, hold it against me
- Meaning
- I will go and see her, and tomorrow indeed come home—even if the distant other, rather, takes it amiss.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Usugumo
Genji smiled and answered Murasaki no Ue's poem with this one. He promised that though he went there, he would surely be home tomorrow, and said he did not care if he displeased Akashi no Kimi. The child, playing on without understanding the exchange, seemed dear to Murasaki no Ue, and for her sake she quite forgave the dig at Akashi no Kimi. Genji took the child into his arms and played at giving her the breast, and the sight had much to delight in.
"Yukite mite" is to go and see her. "Sane komu" is I will surely come home, with "sa" as emphasis. "Nakanaka ni" is rather, if anything. "The distant other" takes up her own word for Akashi no Kimi at Oi. "Kokoro oku" is to take amiss, to hold something back. Where she reproached the "distant other" as one holding him back, he takes up the same word and answers that though that other should mind it, he will surely return, and the wit of the exchange is kept.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- The root it sprang from runs deep, and so like the twin pines of Takekuma I shall set mother-pine and small pine side by side for an age
- 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
- The thin cloud trailing over the peak where the sun sinks—has it made its color match the mourning sleeve of one sunk deep in sorrow?
- The fire I cannot forget, that burned while we fished at that shore—has this wretched drifting boat of mine come following after it?