If the warbler sings
out of longing for the past,
can it be because
the blossoms it moves among
have faded from what they were?
- Meaning
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If the warbler sings out of longing for the past, can it be that the blossoms it moves among from branch to branch have faded from what they were?
- Commentary
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Part One: Otome
Taking the cup after the Prince of War's poem, the Reizei Emperor answered with this one, and his manner, we are told, was of an incomparable depth. The narrator adds a word of explanation: if few of the day's poems have come down to us, it may be because the gathering was a private one and the cup did not go round often, or else because they were simply not written down. Afterward, since the musicians' stand was too far off to be heard clearly, instruments were brought to the imperial presence and the great players performed together; the courtiers sang "Ana toto" and then "Sakurabito," and as the moon came out hazily, torches were lit here and there about the island in the lake, and the music ended.
"The warbler" is those who dance and play Shun'oden, and at the same time it suggests Genji and the Retired Emperor, who have been longing for the past. "The blossoms it moves among" are the flowers the bird passes to—the present reign, where it now rests. "Have they faded?" asks, in all humility, whether men long for the old days because his own rule falls short. That a young sovereign should so examine himself is itself the measure of his quality, and of his depth. Answering the three poems of Genji, the Retired Emperor, and the Prince of War, it closes the sequence of four exactly as it should be closed.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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