The mountain dwellers,
whose mourning robes are heavy
with the autumn dew,
have added a voice of their
own to the crying of deer
- Meaning
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The mountain dwellers, their mourning robes heavy with autumn dew, have added their own voices to the crying of the deer.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Yugiri
Shosho no Kimi answered Yugiri's poem with this one. Those in the villa are in mourning too, she says, and pass their days adding their weeping to the deer—taking up what he had said while conveying how deep the Princess's grief runs. The Princess still would not write, and Yugiri came down from the hills without so much as a glimpse of her. On the way he passed the Ichijo residence, looked at the neglected house, and composed a poem of his own.
"Mourning robes" are the coarse cloth worn in bereavement. "Heavy with dew" is being wet, and so given to tears. "Mountain dwellers" are the people at the Ono villa, and above all the Princess. "Added a voice" is joining one's weeping to another sound, the word covering both the deer's cry and human sobbing. She takes his deer unchanged and lays their voices over it—a careful reply, properly measured for one writing on another's behalf.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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