よそに見て折らぬ嘆きはしげれども
なごり恋しき花の夕かげ
なごり恋しき花の夕かげ
- Roma-ji
-
Yoso ni mite oranu nageki wa shigeredomo
nagori koishiki hana no yūkage - English Translation
-
Seen from far outside
and never broken off—that
grief grows thick, and still
what lingers is what I long for:
that blossom in evening light
- Meaning
- Seen only from outside and never broken off, the grief grows thick; and still what lingers is what I long for—that blossom in the evening light.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Wakana Jo
Ever since the day of the kickball, when he glimpsed the Third Princess, Kashiwagi's feeling had been rising. In time he sent a letter in through Kojiju, who served her, and wrote this poem in it. Kojiju was his own nurse's daughter, and that connection is what will bring the two of them together later on. The Princess was in no state to write back, so Kojiju answered for her and turned him away. His ardor is checked here for the moment; in the next chapter it crosses the line at last.
"Seen from far outside" is looking on with no way to reach. "Never broken off" is a branch he cannot break, and the word for grief also sounds a thrown-down branch, so that it belongs with the thickening and with blossom and breaking as a family of associated words. "That blossom in evening light" is the glimpse he had of her. Words to do with trees and flowers run through the whole, holding a settled ardor for someone out of reach—a well-made love poem, and at the same time one that puts a forbidden beginning straight into verse.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- How can it be that the warbler, going tree to tree among blossoms, singles out no cherry branch to make its roost for the night
- Even the hako bird that has fixed its own roost in the deep hill trees— how could it ever grow tired of the color of blossoms
- Do not, at this late hour, let it show in your face— that on a mountain cherry's branch beyond your reach you had once set your heart
- Since I have made you tame, a keepsake of the one I long for in vain— be used to me, then; and why is this the cry you cry now