いく返り露けき春を過ぐし来て
花の紐解く折にあふらむ
花の紐解く折にあふらむ
- Roma-ji
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Iku kaeri tsuyukeki haru o sugushi kite
hana no himo toku ori ni auramu - English Translation
-
How many a spring
heavy with dew have I passed
and come at last to—
this, the hour when the flower
unlooses its knotted bud?
- Meaning
- How many a dew-heavy spring have I passed, to come at last to this—the hour when the flower unlooses its bud?
- Commentary
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Part One: Fujiura
This is Yugiri's answer to the Minister. Cup in hand, he performed the token gesture of grateful obeisance with great grace, and made this poem. He then passed the cup to Kashiwagi, who took up the sequence in turn; for one who receives the cup must make a poem, and the evening's exchange grows out of that rule.
"Iku kaeri" is how many times. "A spring heavy with dew" is a springtime of tears, the years passed without reaching Kumoinokari, the dew standing for weeping. "The flower unlooses its bud" is a bud opening, and over it the fulfillment of love; since the Man'yoshu, opening flowers are said to "unloose their cords," and he follows the usage. After years of tears, is he to reach at last the hour when the flower opens—when his wish comes true? To the Minister's wisteria he answers with the figure of the unloosing bud. It is a poem of restrained joy at the moment when long endurance is about to be repaid.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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