みつせ川わたらぬさきにいかでなほ
涙のみをのあわと消えなん
涙のみをのあわと消えなん
- Roma-ji
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Mitsusegawa wataranu saki ni ikade nao
namida no mio no awa to kienan - English Translation
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Before I must cross
the river of the three fords,
let me somehow be
the foam upon the current
of my own tears, and vanish
- Meaning
- Before I must cross the river of the three fords, let me somehow become foam on the current of my own tears, and vanish.
- Commentary
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Part One: Makibashira
This is her answer, made with her face hidden. Genji smiled: was that where her childish heart came to rest? Since there was no avoiding that crossing, he said, he would at least take her by the fingertips and help her over. Then, in earnest, he told her that she must surely understand by now both his own unexampled folly and how safe it had left her. Seeing how unbearable she found this, he turned the talk aside, said that the Emperor's wishes were too pitiable to ignore and that she must after all serve for a while, and taught her what she would need to know. He did not let himself go as he might have; and he showed no sign of allowing her to move to the Commander's house any time soon.
"Mitsuse-gawa," the river of three fords, takes up his "crossing river." "Mio" is the channel where the water runs—here the river of her tears. "Become foam and vanish" belongs to the same imagery. Let me be gone in the river of tears, she says, before I reach the other one: that is, let the bond with the Commander be cut off entirely. Genji called it a childish place to come to rest, and so it is—she can think of no escape but death. And that is exactly the measure of how far she has been driven.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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