つれづれとわが泣き暮らす夏の日を
かことがましき虫の声かな
かことがましき虫の声かな
- Roma-ji
-
Tsurezure to waga nakikurasu natsu no hi o
kakotogamashiki mushi no koe kana - English Translation
-
Through this summer day
that I spend weeping, with no
occupation, comes
the voice of an insect, as
though it were laying blame on me
- Meaning
- Through this summer day I spend weeping, with nothing to do, comes an insect's voice, as though it were laying the blame on me.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Maboroshi
As summer came on, Genji shut everyone out and spent his days weeping alone. At dusk the cicadas cried without stopping, and their voices ran together with his own. He spoke this poem to himself. The chapter sets down one such solitary poem after another, each occasioned by some sound or light of the season, and together they mark out the passing of a year. Nowhere else in the tale is one person's mourning followed in such detail.
"With no occupation" is having nothing to do. "Spend weeping" is a whole day given to it. "As though it were laying blame" is sounding reproachful. "An insect's voice" is the cry of the cicadas. He writes as if his own grief had passed into the insects, taking a sound from outside as an extension of what is inside—which is very much how grief works.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Hototogisu kimi ni tsutenamu furusato no
hanatachibana wa ima zo sakari to - Next Poem
-
Yo o shiru hotaru o mite mo kanashiki wa
toki zo to mo naki omoi narikeri