Does this pond of spring
run through to the shallows at
Ide, I wonder?—
for the kerria on the bank
glows in the depths as well
- Meaning
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Does this pond of spring run through, I wonder, to the shallows at Ide?—for the kerria on the bank is glowing even in the depths below.
- Commentary
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Part One: Kocho
This is another of the poems made aboard the boats. The hazy treetops on every side were like brocade drawn out to view; the garden before the house opened far away; the willows had deepened and trailed their branches; and the cherries, past their best elsewhere, were smiling here at their height. The wisteria about the galleries was opening in strong color, and above all the kerria along the bank, throwing its reflection on the water, was at its fullest. Waterfowl went in pairs without parting, carrying twigs in their bills, and mandarin ducks laid their pattern across the figured ripples—a scene one wanted copied into a design; and the women, like the man in the tale whose axe handle rotted while he watched, forgot the passing of the day.
"The shallows at Ide" is the Tama-mizu of Ide in Yamashiro, a poetic place since the Man'yoshu and famous for its kerria; behind the poem lies the old verse about the kerria of Ide scattering while the frogs called. "Run through" asks whether the waters are joined. "In the depths" is at the bottom of the pond, where the flowers of the bank are mirrored. Where the previous poem drew on the Cape of Yamabuki in Omi, this one draws on Ide in Yamashiro: two famous places of the kerria set side by side in play. The fancy that this pond may be joined underground to the waters of a famous place tells us what a world apart the garden is.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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