The maiden also
has taken on years, it seems,
since those heavenly sleeves—
for the friend of that old world
has grown older himself now
- Meaning
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You who were the maiden then must have taken on years by now, since the days of those heavenly sleeves—for the friend you knew in that old world has grown old himself.
- Commentary
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Part One: Otome
Yugiri, who had been unwilling to appear at court in the pale blue of the sixth rank, was permitted a informal cloak on account of the Gosechi and so went up to the palace. The dancers that year were older than usual, and the beauty of Koremitsu's daughter, whom Genji had presented, was much talked of. Watching them, Genji remembered the Gosechi dancer of Tsukushi, who had caught his eye in the years of Suma and Akashi. On the evening of the Day of the Dragon, the last day of the festival, he sent her a letter; counting up the years that had gathered, he could not keep the sudden rush of remembrance to himself. She answered with a poem that looked back on those days as well.
"Otomego" is the Gosechi dancer, the maiden. "Kamisabu" is to grow venerable with age, to take on years, and it plays on the sacred character of the Gosechi rites. "Amatsu sode," heavenly sleeves, likens the dancer's sleeves to a heavenly maiden's, and as a pillow word it leads to "furu," which is both to wave a sleeve and to be old. "The friend of that old world" is Genji himself. He speaks of her years, but ends by saying that he has aged just as much—remembrance without reproach. The chapter takes its name, Otome, from the "maiden" of this poem and of Yugiri's later poem, "Even in the sunlight." The narrator adds that fond as such remembering may be, it cannot bring back what is gone.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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