Even the butterflies
of this garden of flowers—
will she look on them
coldly, the cricket that waits
for autumn in the undergrowth?
- Meaning
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Even the butterflies of this flower garden—will you look on them coldly, you who wait for autumn among the undergrowth?
- Commentary
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Part One: Kocho
The next day was the first of the Empress's seasonal readings. About noon Genji and the rest went across to her quarter, and the courtiers came without exception, so that the service was a solemn one. Murasaki sent flowers to be offered to the Buddha as her own devotion. Eight page girls, chosen for their looks and dressed half as birds and half as butterflies, carried cherry in silver vases for the birds and kerria in gold for the butterflies. The boats put out from the hill before the southern quarter, and as they came up to the Empress's veranda the wind rose and scattered a little of the cherry; the children stepping out from among the haze made a fresh and moving sight. They brought the flowers to the foot of the stairs, and the incense-bearers passed them on to the altar. The message went by Genji's son, the Captain, and with it this poem.
"The butterflies of the flower garden" are the butterfly children and the dance called Kocho. "Undergrowth" is grass in shadow; and in "the cricket that waits for autumn" the word for waiting plays on the pine, and means the Empress, who chose autumn. "Look on coldly" is to find something uncongenial, to hold it at a distance. It answers, at the proper season, the poem the Empress had sent the autumn before when the estate was finished: since it is by your own choosing that you wait for spring, look at least on my maples. It also carries out Genji's instruction that she should not disparage maples in their season, for fear of the goddess of Tatsuta, but wait for spring. Taking up the challenge and adding the conceit of the bird and butterfly children, Murasaki answers with something to spare.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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