わが宿は花もてはやす人もなし
何にか春のたづね来つらむ
何にか春のたづね来つらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Waga yado wa hana motehayasu hito mo nashi
nani ni ka haru no tazune kitsuramu - English Translation
-
At my house there is
no one left to make much of
the blossoms—for what,
then, has the spring come looking
and found its way here at all
- Meaning
- At my house there is no one left to make much of the blossoms; for what, then, has spring come looking and found its way here?
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Maboroshi
The year after he lost Murasaki no Ue, a new spring came to the Rokujo residence. Genji saw no one and did nothing but hold services. In the First Month his younger brother, Prince Hyobu, came with New Year greetings. The world was keeping its spring as it always did, and only this house was without its mistress. Seeing the red plum beginning to open, Genji spoke this poem first. The Prince answered at once, and the brothers talked of old times and wept. From then on Genji's year was spent almost entirely in remembering her.
"My house" is where he lives. "No one to make much of the blossoms" is the one who used to delight in them—Murasaki no Ue. "For what" asks to what purpose. "Spring has come looking" also means the brother standing in front of him. The contrast—the season returns and the person does not—is set inside the form of a New Year greeting, and it gives the whole chapter its key in advance.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- Even from above the clouds you have risen to, turn and look back here: I have had my fill at last of this world where nothing holds
- Then all my coming here in search of the fragrance is for nothing, and you will call it no more than an ordinary flower-viewing
- Thinking I would go from this wretched world the way the snow goes, and yet beyond all expectation I am still here, letting time fall