Autumn in general
I have come to know as a
hard thing—and even
so, what I cannot shake off
is the bell cricket's voice
- Meaning
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Autumn in general I have come to know as a hard thing; and even so, what I cannot shake off is the voice of the bell cricket.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Suzumushi
In autumn Genji had the garden before the Third Princess's apartments made over to look like open country, and set loose a great many autumn insects, bell crickets among them. On the excuse of listening to them he came often, and spoke of feeling that had still not ended. She found it burdensome and could not bring herself to say so. On the evening of the fifteenth of the Eighth Month they read the sutra together in low voices and listened to the insects. Genji said he thought the bell cricket better than the pine cricket, and she answered with this poem. He replied at once, and then took up the koto for the first time in a long while.
"Autumn in general" is the season as a whole, and the word sounds the verb for having had enough, so that she means she has been tired of. "A hard thing" is what one finds painful. "Shake off" is to cast something away, and the verb also carries the shaking of a bell, so that it belongs with the cricket's name. To say that one who has left the world still cannot let this one sound go is to admit that something remains uncut, and the chapter takes its name from the poem.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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