The boat that we pole
onward through the spring sunlight,
soft upon the water—
even the drops from the pole
fall as though they were blossoms
- Meaning
-
The boat we pole onward through the soft spring sunlight—even the drops that fall from the pole come down as though they were blossoms.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Kocho
This is the last of the poems from the boating. When night came they were sorry to have it end, and torches were lit in the garden; musicians were called to the moss below the stairs, and the senior nobles and princes took up strings and winds as each was able. The masters played sojo, and the kotos above the stairs took it up and gave "Ana toto"; and while it lasted, even men of no discernment, standing among the carriages and horses that packed the gate, listened with their faces bright, feeling that it was worth being alive. The music went on all night, and at dawn the Prince of War sang "Green Willow" over and over, with Genji adding his voice.
"Urara" is the softness of spring sunlight. "Sasu" plays on the sun's shining and on the poling of the boat. "The drops from the pole" are the water that runs off as it is lifted, seen as falling petals. The whole scene—a boat moving through air full of drifting cherry—is gathered into that single point of falling water. Of the four poems this is the least worked and the most direct in its description, and for that very reason it is the right one to close the day. The narrator calls them all trifles, and yet such impromptu exchanges are precisely what color life at the Rokujo estate.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-