Whether you could throw
yourself into that deep pool—
this spring, at least, stay
where the flowers are, and do not
leave, and watch, and let us see

Meaning

Whether you could really throw yourself into that pool—stay this spring where the flowers are, do not go, and let us see.

Commentary

Part One: Kocho

　This is Genji's answer to the Prince of War. Smiling broadly, he made the poem and pressed him so warmly to stay that the Prince could not get away, and the morning's music proved even better than the night's. The next day was the first of the Empress's seasonal readings of the sutras, and the nobles who had come for the boating stayed on to attend.

　"Fuchi" takes up the Prince's own word, playing pool against wisteria. "Could you throw yourself?" is a question that turns his exaggeration gently aside. "Where the flowers are" is where the wisteria stands—that is, the Rokujo estate, where Tamakazura lives. To tell him not to leave but to watch is to say: do not hurry; enjoy this spring and see how things go. Neither refusing the suit nor accepting it, the poem simply keeps the man where he is; and in that we have Genji's whole design—to set the young men contending about Tamakazura for his own amusement. A poem of the banquet, it foretells the shape of the ten Tamakazura chapters.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Whether you could throw yourself into that deep pool— this spring, at least, stay where the flowers are, and do not leave, and watch, and let us see

Whether you could throw
yourself into that deep pool—
this spring, at least, stay
where the flowers are, and do not
leave, and watch, and let us see