Come to seek it out,
the springtime of the old place,
here among the boughs—
and what I find is a bloom
such as the world seldom shows

Meaning

I have come seeking the springtime of that old place among its boughs—and what I find is a bloom such as the world seldom shows.

Commentary

Part One: Hatsune

　After some busy days of New Year duties, Genji went to call on the ladies who lived apart at the east lodge at Nijo. For the daughter of the Prince of Hitachi, Suetsumuhana, whose birth made her case a pitiable one, he had seen to it that appearances at least were properly kept. The hair that had once seemed at its height was thinning with the years, and her pale profile was so sad a sight that he could not bring himself to face her directly. The willow-colored weave he had sent did not suit her; she wore a single dull black under-robe, stiff with starch, and looked cold. Only the color of her nose stood out, too bright to be lost in any haze, so that he sighed in spite of himself and drew a curtain-stand between them. Asked whether anyone saw to her clothes, she said that the Adept of Daigo had kept her too busy for sewing, and that since her fur robe was taken from her she had been cold; so he had the storehouse of the lodge across the way opened and sent her silks and damasks. Then, looking out at the red plum in bloom before the veranda with no one to admire it, he murmured this.

　"Furusato" is a place one has known of old—here the east lodge, where Genji no longer lives. "A bloom such as the world seldom shows" plays "hana," flower, against "hana," nose. In form it is an elegant murmur over a red plum that no one is there to admire; in fact it speaks of Suetsumuhana's red nose, and the conceit of her own chapter returns once more. The narrator's closing—"she will not have understood"—makes the joke: a man talking to himself in front of someone who cannot hear him. And yet it lies back to back with the depth of feeling that keeps him from abandoning her, and sends silks from the storehouse; that is the fineness of the scene.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Come to seek it out, the springtime of the old place, here among the boughs— and what I find is a bloom such as the world seldom shows

Come to seek it out,
the springtime of the old place,
here among the boughs—
and what I find is a bloom
such as the world seldom shows