Was it that she found
the fields withering away
hard to look upon,
that the one who is gone left
no part of her heart in autumn
- Meaning
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Was it that she found the withering fields hard to look on, that the one who is gone left no part of her heart with autumn?
- Commentary
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Part Two: Minori
The messages of condolence went on without a break, and one came to Genji from the Akikonomu Empress. She was the daughter of the Rokujo lady, raised by Genji and brought to the rank of Empress. She and Murasaki no Ue had once exchanged poems arguing the merits of spring against autumn, and they had been close for years. This poem came with her letter. Genji answered, and the scene of condolence closes with the exchange. The chapter goes on from there to the end of the year, and Genji without her.
"The fields withering away" is countryside gone brown, the look of late autumn and also of a life ending. "Hard to look upon" is finding a thing painful. "The one who is gone" is Murasaki. "Left no part of her heart in autumn" recalls that she had preferred spring. Taking the dead woman's own preference into a letter of condolence gathers up, quietly, the old argument the two of them once had.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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