Komatsubara sue no yowai ni hikarete ya
nobe no wakana mo toshi o tsumubeki

English Translation

Drawn along, perhaps,
by the years still to be lived
in that young pine grove,
the new shoots of the meadow
will gather years of their own

Meaning

Drawn along, perhaps, by the long years still ahead of that grove of young pines, the shoots of the meadow too will gather years of their own.

Commentary

Part Two: Wakana Jo

　Genji answered Tamakazura's poem with this one. He takes the shoots she has offered and the small boys she has brought as one continuous image, and says that he will borrow their life and add years himself. It is the answer proper to a fortieth-year celebration, the one being honored taking up the words of the one who honors him. The banquet ran on into the night, and Kashiwagi appeared as a master of the six-stringed koto—the man who will drive the second half of the tale, set before us quietly at this feast.

　"Young pine grove" takes up her "young pines" and means her children. "The years still to be lived" is the long life ahead of them. "Tsumu" plays gathering shoots against gathering years, so that the offering of greens turns of itself into a wish for long life. Carrying her words forward and then folding the sense over on a single pivot word is among the neatest things Genji does in verse. This is the poem that gives the chapter its name.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Komatsubara sue no yowai ni hikarete ya nobe no wakana mo toshi o tsumubeki

Komatsubara sue no yowai ni hikarete ya
nobe no wakana mo toshi o tsumubeki