Not knowing the road
on which you went astray, nor
Imose-yama,
anyone might have gone stumbling
over the letters, and read them
- Meaning
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Not knowing the road on which you went astray, nor anything of Imose-yama, anyone might have gone stumbling over those letters and read them.
- Commentary
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Part One: Fujibakama
This is her reply. Saisho carried it, adding that her mistress had not understood what he meant, and that being unreasonably careful of what the world might say she could not answer him properly—though it would not always be so. Since that was fair enough, Kashiwagi said that it was still too early for him to stay long, and that when he had made himself more useful he would come with his reproaches; and he rose. The moon was high and clear, and in his cloak he looked bright and handsome—not the equal of Yugiri, but fine enough that the young women, as usual, made much of him.
"The road on which you went astray" takes up his own "went straying." "Imose-yama" is likewise his word, handed back. "Tadotadoshiku" is uncertainly, without clear knowledge. "Fumimishi" again plays letter against treading, carrying his pivot forward. To use every word of the poem one answers is proper practice; but the thing to notice is the close, where one would expect "I too read them" and she writes instead "anyone might have." She will not let her own heart be named, and the whole of her caution is in that single word.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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