怨みわび胸あきがたき冬の夜に
また鎖しまさる関の岩門
また鎖しまさる関の岩門
- Roma-ji
-
Uramiwabi mune akigataki fuyu no yo ni
mata tozashi masaru seki no iwato - English Translation
-
On a winter night
when, resent it as I may,
my breast will not clear,
it is barred the tighter still—
this stone gate of the barrier
- Meaning
- On a winter night when, resent it as I may, my breast will not clear, the stone gate of the barrier is barred tighter still.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Yugiri
Brought back to the Ichijo residence, the Fallen Leaf Princess shut herself into the inner room and would not come out. Day after day Yugiri spent every argument he had, and she kept the door closed. He spoke this poem on a winter night, with that door still between them. She did not relent, and in the end he forced his way in. He stayed on the next day as well, so that to all the world the marriage appeared to have been made.
"Resent it as I may" is being unable to see resentment through. "My breast will not clear" is a heart that stays closed, and the verb covers both a door opening and a heart lightening. "Barred tighter still" is being shut more firmly. "The stone gate of the barrier" is a checkpoint's massive gate, and it stands for the door that will not open. Two closed things—a breast and a door—are bound in a single word, and though the poem states a grievance it has lost none of its pressure.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
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- Let me rise and mix with the smoke that went up from that mountain ridge, and not be made to lean toward any quarter I never meant
- As a keepsake that cannot ease the longing at all, it stands before me, clouded over with my tears—this jeweled box of hers
- Rather than resent this body worn soft with use, shall I not cut it over into the habit of a fisher of Matsushima
- Because the wet robe of a fisher of Matsushima has been worn soft, would you raise the name of one who has changed it for another