Say it that way, and
it seems a thing of today—
how, like frost that melts
in the sunlight, I softened
there against your sleeve of old
- Meaning
-
Put it that way and it seems a thing of today—how, like frost melting in the sun, I once softened against your sleeve, wearing the maiden's sunlight garland.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Otome
This is the Tsukushi dancer's reply to Genji's poem of remembrance. She had chosen green-printed paper suited to the season, disguised her hand by mixing pale ink with dark, and written it in a scattered style with many cursive characters; Genji, thinking it uncommonly graceful for a Deputy Governor's daughter, studied it with pleasure. Yugiri, meanwhile, could not keep his eyes from the other dancer, and hovered about hoping for some chance to reach her; but she kept him at a distance and would have nothing to do with him, and being of an age still too diffident to press, he was left only with his disappointment. Her face, though, stayed with him, and he wondered whether she might not be some consolation for the girl who had been taken from him.
"Kakete" means speaking by way of the Gosechi, and it plays on hanging the sunlight garland. "Hikage" is both the light of the sun and the garland the dancer hangs from her headdress. "The frost in the sunlight" is a preface leading to "melt," and frost and melting belong together. The "sleeve" is Genji's, and "toke" carries both the melting of frost and the softening of a heart. Recalling how she, then a dancer, gave her heart to him, she answers his remembrance with warmth—while saying nothing at all about the years he had mentioned. Layer upon layer of pivot words and associates make this a poem of great polish.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-