身をかへて後もまちみよこの世にて
親を忘るるためしありやと
親を忘るるためしありやと
- Roma-ji
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Mi o kaete nochi mo machimi yo kono yo nite
oya o wasururu tameshi ari ya to - English Translation
-
When my body changes,
wait and watch even then—
for was there ever,
in this world, a single case
of a child forgetting a parent?
- Meaning
- Wait and watch even in the life after I am born again—for was there ever, in this world, a case of a child forgetting its parent?
- Commentary
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Part One: Asagao
Somewhat unnerved, Genji answered the Naishi no Suke's "though the years pass" with this poem. Since she made so much of having been called "the parent of a parent," he turns it back on her: wait and watch even into the life to come, for there was never in this world a case of a child forgetting a parent. He deftly parries her amorous clinging by recasting it as the bond of parent and child. Though he found the aged woman's advances distasteful, he did not rebuff her outright, but left with the words, "Let us talk at leisure by and by."
"When my body changes" means being born again. "Wait and watch even then" is: watch for me even in the life after. "In this world" is: in this present life. "A case of forgetting a parent" is an instance of a child forgetting a parent, taking up her likening of herself to a "parent." "Was there ever" is a rhetorical question: could there be such a case?—no, there could not. By saying that if he thinks of her as a parent he could never forget her, he gently turns aside her suit and shifts the matter onto the bond of parent and child.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Toshi furedo kono chigiri koso wasurarene
oya no oya to ka iishi hitokoto - Next Poem
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Tsurenasa o mukashi ni korinu kokoro koso
hito no tsuraki ni soete tsurakere