Even for offering
no more than the world's plain grief,
since I made the vow,
would not the god rise up and
rebuke me for the breaking?
- Meaning
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Even to offer no more than the world's ordinary sympathy—since I once made the vow, would not the god rebuke me for it?
- Commentary
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Part One: Asagao
The lady Asagao answered Genji's "in secret" poem with this one. Even the mere offering of condolence to one in mourning, she says, is a thing to be wary of for one who, as priestess, pledged purity to the god; and so she gently turns aside his plea of love. Rather than rebuffing him coldly, she keeps her distance by making the vow to the god her pretext—a bearing that shows the lady's modesty and reserve. Genji goes on pressing his feeling after this, but her heart does not move.
"The world's plain" means ordinary, of the common sort. "No more than grief" is: only the feeling of condolence to one in mourning. "To offer" is to visit, to call upon, here to offer condolence. "The vow I made" points to the purity she pledged to the god as priestess. "Would the god rebuke" is: would the god blame me for breaking that vow. By saying that even a bare condolence might touch the god's prohibition, the poem, all the more, refuses any further suit of love—an indirect and courteous denial.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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