If, when one looks it
up, we prove but the dew of
some far distant field,
then the pale purple bond might
serve you at least as pretext
- Meaning
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If, on looking into it, we proved to be dew from some far-off field, then the pale purple bond might at least serve you as a pretext.
- Commentary
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Part One: Fujibakama
This is her answer. She found him hateful and unnerving, but slipped quietly back inside without letting it show, and made the poem; then added that there could be nothing deeper between them than talk of this kind. Yugiri smiled a little, said she must know well enough what was deep and what was shallow, and went on at length about what he could not keep down—even that he envied and resented Kashiwagi, who had learned she was his sister and so quieted his heart. As she drew further and further away, plainly wishing him gone, she said she was oddly unwell and withdrew altogether; and he rose with a heavy sigh and left.
"Dew from a far-off field" is a distant kinship. "Pale purple" is the flower's color, and so the purple bond, the tie of blood. "Might serve as a pretext" is contrary to fact: as things stand there is no such tie, and therefore no ground for pity at all. She takes his own word, "pretext," and hands it back with the whole argument attached. To say "far-off" while implying that they are not even distant kin is a refusal that is oblique and merciless at once. They wear the same mourning; and with this one poem the distance between them is fixed.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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