Even the one who
left the world and lives out there
on the Akashi
shore will never see it clear—
that darkness in a parent's heart
- Meaning
-
Even the one who left the world and lives on at Akashi will never see it lift, that darkness a parent carries in the heart.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Wakana Jo
After the nun and the Consort, the Consort's true mother, the Akashi lady, closed the exchange with this poem. She turns toward her father, left behind on the Akashi shore, and says that even a man who has renounced the world will never have that darkness lift from him. Her own darkness lies under it too—she who gave her daughter up to Murasaki no Ue and served her without ever claiming the name of mother. The three poems thus reach as far as the grandfather, and the whole Akashi story can be seen at once.
"Left the world" is taking vows, and "the one who lives on the Akashi shore" is her father. "The darkness in a parent's heart" is the loss of judgment that love for a child brings, a phrase with an old poem behind it about how a parent's heart is no darkness and yet loses its way. "See it clear" is having it brighten, and the closing words deny that it ever will. Where the other two poems held to the seaside scene, this one leaves the landscape for the human heart, which is what the last poem of a set should do.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-