To say all is over
and so forget what cannot
be forgotten—is
this, then, the sort of heart that
bends before the world's own way?

Meaning

To say all is over, and so forget what cannot be forgotten—is this the sort of heart that bends before the way of the world?

Commentary

Part One: Umegae

　This is her reply. Bitterly aware that he had let fall no hint of the other match, she wrote it and sent it back. But Yugiri knew nothing of any proposal from Prince Nakatsukasa; he could not make out what she meant, could not put the letter down, and sat over it with his head on one side. Their misunderstanding is not cleared, and the tale carries it forward into the chapter of the Wisteria Leaves.

　"Kagiri to te" is: taking it that there is nothing else to be done. "To forget what cannot be forgotten" is to put aside the woman one should not put aside—that is, herself. "Ko ya" is: is this, then, the very thing. "A heart that bends before the world" is one that follows where power leads, which is how she describes his supposed pursuit of a great house. Taking up his "the common way of this world" and his "unlike the rest," she turns them round: it is you who bend to the world. The technique of reversing an opponent's words is used to the full. But since he has done nothing of the kind, a sharp poem only widens the gap, and the tangle between them draws tighter.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

To say all is over and so forget what cannot be forgotten—is this, then, the sort of heart that bends before the world's own way?

To say all is over
and so forget what cannot
be forgotten—is
this, then, the sort of heart that
bends before the world's own way?