The grass is young at
the bay of Hitachi, where
the cape of Ikaga
stands—how, oh how shall I meet you,
waves of the bay of Tago?
- Meaning
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Young grass at the bay of Hitachi, the cape of Ikaga—how, oh how am I to meet you, waves of the bay of Tago?
- Commentary
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Part One: Tokonatsu
The lady of Omi, the daughter the Minister of the Center had found and taken in, spoke too fast, could not sit still, and threw herself into games of backgammon, until the whole household was at a loss with her. Thinking to have her taught manners, the Minister proposed to place her with his daughter the Kokiden Consort, who was then at home, and told her to go to her at once. Saying that a grudging air would give offense, and that however highly the Minister might think of her she would have no place in the house if the ladies were cold to her, she sent a letter first. It quoted one old poem after another and was full of repetition marks, and with it came this poem. She had used two sheets of blue paper; the writing, thick with cursive characters and oddly angular, belonged to no known style, and the lines slanted toward the edge as though about to fall over—though she looked it over with great satisfaction. Then she rolled it very small, tied it, fastened it to a pink, and sent it by the girl who cleaned the privies to the kitchen quarters.
"The grass is young" opens the poem; the bay of Hitachi, the cape of Ikaga in Omi, and the bay of Tago in Suruga are all famous places in poetry. "Ikaga" serves as a preface leading to "ikade," how; and the whole sense of the poem is simply: I long to meet you. But the place names have nothing to do with one another, and the effect is a jumble. She believes that a shower of poetic places will raise her style—which is exactly where her learning goes wrong. The narrator, however, does not merely mock her: the care with which she rolls the letter small and ties it to a flower is set down with a certain fondness.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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