One after the other
I would go on seeing them,
through ten thousand reigns,
until this small boxwood comb
has taken on the gods' age
- Meaning
-
I would go on seeing such good fortune, one after the other, through ten thousand ages, until this boxwood comb itself has grown old and holy.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Wakana Jo
Suzaku answered the Empress's combs and poem on the spot with this one. Meeting her greeting, he sets down his wish to watch over his own daughter's future for many years to come. Yet he was about to leave the world, and no one knew better than he that he could not himself see that wish through. Soon afterward he entrusted the Third Princess to Genji's care, and her move to the Rokujo residence was settled.
"One after the other" is a word of succession, and it takes up her "still set" while turning it toward things that follow one upon another. "Small boxwood comb" answers her "jeweled small comb." "Ten thousand reigns" is time without end. He receives her "taken on the gods' age" and returns it as "until it takes on the gods' age," so that the etiquette of the exchange is exactly kept. Inside that formal shape lies the urgency of a father with only days left in the world.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-