If the prayer I have
offered up year upon year
should come to nothing,
then must I count the god of
that mirror shrine unkind to me
- Meaning
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If the prayer I have offered up year after year should come to nothing, must I then count the god of the mirror shrine unkind?
- Commentary
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Part One: Tamakazura
Having had a poem addressed to her, the nurse could hardly leave it unanswered. Half out of her wits, she tried to make her daughters reply, but they only sat there saying they were even less able to think. At last, with the silence dragging on, she brought out this poem, trembling, just as it came to her. At the Audit Officer's abrupt "Wait—what was that you said?" she went white. Her daughters, keeping their heads and forcing smiles, explained that the young lady was not quite as other women, and that to cross him would surely bring regret; the old woman had simply muddled her words, invoking the god by mistake. Satisfied, he recovered his temper, meant to make a second poem, found he could not, and went away.
"Toshi wo hete" is over many years. "The prayer" is the nurse's long-standing wish to bring the girl back to the capital and see her suitably matched. "Should it come to nothing" is: should the prayer be crossed; "must I count it unkind" is: shall I then hold it against the god? Formally she takes up his own words—"turn away" and "the god of the mirror shrine"—and hands them back; but what the poem holds is a flat refusal of the match. Answering with the same words while reversing their sense is a standard technique, and here it works as quick wit exercised at real risk. This trembling poem is what turns the party toward flight.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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