ともかくも岩間の水の結ぼほれ
かけとむべくも思ほえぬ世を
かけとむべくも思ほえぬ世を
- Roma-ji
-
Tomokaku mo iwama no mizu no musubōre
kaketomubeku mo omooenu yo o - English Translation
-
However it may be,
the water among the rocks
is bound fast and still—
and I see nothing here that could
hold me, or keep me either
- Meaning
- However it may be, the water among the rocks is bound fast; and I can see nothing in this world that would hold me here either.
- Commentary
-
Part One: Makibashira
This is Moku's reply, after which she said, "Well, well," and wept. The carriages were brought out and the party left the house; and the mistress, keeping her eyes even on the treetops, looked back until she could see no more. Not because it was the house of one she loved, the narrator ends—but how should a dwelling of so many years not be remembered?
"Water among the rocks" takes up the other's "water among the stones," and is said to sound "iwazu," unspoken. "Musubohore" carries at once the cupping of water in the hand, the binding of ice, and the closing of the heart. "Kaketomu," to hold fast, plays on "kage," the reflection, and answers the other's "kakehanaru." The woman who was envied replies that she too is no longer looked at, and cannot imagine remaining—so that neither the one who goes nor the one who stays has anything to hope for. Carrying every one of the water words forward, the exchange sounds like the house itself coming apart.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Even if it should remember us as those who knew it long—on what grounds could we stay on here now, pillar of cypress, and remain?
- Shallow though it is, the water among the stones runs clear and stays on— while she who kept this house must go, and be parted from it
- The bird that perches wing to wing in the mountain tree— no spring was ever so hard to bear as this one, none ever galled me so
- Why should it be that I dyed my heart so deeply in a purple that will not take the mordant, and is not to be come at all?