If I carry home
this flower scent, borne away
in so fine a sleeve,
my lady will surely charge me
with having gone astray
- Meaning
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If I carry this flower scent home in so fine a sleeve, my lady will surely charge me with having gone astray.
- Commentary
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Part One: Umegae
As the Prince left at daybreak, Genji sent out to his carriage a set of his own informal robes together with two jars of incense untouched by the contest—a return for his labors as judge. The Prince answered with this poem, and Genji laughed that he was very faint-hearted.
"So fine a sleeve" is the robe he has just been given. "Carrying the scent home" is taking its perfume away with him. "Koto ayamari" is a lapse with a woman; "imo" is a woman one is close to, especially a wife. But the Prince has been described for some years now as living alone, so the whole thing is a joke—which is why Genji calls him faint-hearted. To make a jest of the scent clinging to a gift is the most elegant possible way of thanking the giver, and a fitting last word from the man who had complained of being made judge. Once again the poems of this chapter turn on scent and nothing else.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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