Should anyone see
how the pink keeps its color,
sweet through all the days,
surely he would go seeking
the hedge where it first took root
- Meaning
-
If a man saw how sweetly the pink holds its color through the days, surely he would go looking for the hedge where it first took root.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Tokonatsu
At the height of summer Genji sat cooling himself in the fishing pavilion at the Rokujo estate, and to the sons of the Minister of the Center who had come to see Yugiri he made pointed remarks about the natural daughter lately taken into their house, the lady of Omi. Evening came and no one left; and when he went across to Tamakazura in the west wing they all followed, hoping for a glimpse of the lady everyone spoke of. There was no moon, so torches were brought, and Genji drew a Japanese koto to him and played, telling her that this instrument is the parent of all the rest and that no one alive plays it as the Minister of the Center does. Her longing to hear her own father's hand grew; but Genji made a barbed remark about ears that are not hard of hearing, and pushed the koto away. With her women close by he could make no jokes, and so instead he spoke of wishing the Minister might see this garden of flowers—and made this poem.
The pink stands for Tokonazura. "Toko-natsukashiki" folds "tokonatsu," another name for the pink, into "natsukashi," dear or attractive, and is taken by some to sound "toko," a bed, as well. "The hedge where it first took root" is her parentage; "a man" is the Minister of the Center. She is too lovely, he says, for her father not to inquire—and then the truth will out. Behind it stand the talk of the lady of the pinks on that rainy night, and the exchange of poems about a pink between the Minister, then a Captain, and Yugao. The chapter takes its name from this poem.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-