Were I an ordinary
man, I should have hated this
ninth month of the year;
yet I stake my life upon it—
and how frail a thing that is
- Meaning
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Were I an ordinary man I should have hated this ninth month; yet I stake my life on it, and how frail a thing that is.
- Commentary
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Part One: Fujibakama
The Ninth Month came. On a lovely morning of first frost, the women who acted for one suitor or another brought in their letters half concealed, as usual, and Tamakazura did not so much as look at them, but only listened while they were read aloud. The Commander's said that he had been putting his trust in her not going into service before the month was out, and yet that the changing sky was more than he could bear; and with it came this poem. He had learned well, through Kashiwagi, that her entry was fixed for the following month. He was set on the match beyond all reason, and had been pressing her woman Ben no Omoto as well, saying that if only her true father were not against it, all might be managed.
"Kazu naraba" is: were I a man of ordinary account—that is, an ordinary suitor with ordinary feelings. "Nagatsuki" is the Ninth Month, the last that remains before she goes. Since the Ninth Month was held unlucky for marriage, an ordinary man would indeed have hated it; but his feeling is so strong that it is on this last month that he pins his hope—and he laments how frail such a hope must be. To measure his own passion against the common run is the shape of the poem, and there is something of the plain, unamorous man in so reasoned a manner. It is he who will presently take her, by a turn no one expects.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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