Even seeing the
fireflies, which know when night
has come, what saddens
me is this longing of mine
that keeps to no hour at all
- Meaning
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Even watching the fireflies, which know when night has come, what saddens me is this longing of mine that keeps to no hour at all.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Maboroshi
On a summer night, watching the fireflies in the garden, Genji spoke this poem to himself. A firefly lights when night comes and goes out when its time is up; the fire in him burns day and night alike. In the twenty-fifth chapter fireflies had been used to show Tamakazura's figure to Prince Hyobu; the same insect appears here as the flame of longing for the dead. The same objects come round again and again from the tale's beginning to its end, changing what they mean, and that is much of what this chapter is.
"Fireflies, which know when night has come" light at the right hour. "Keeps to no hour at all" is being bound to no time. The word for longing contains the syllable for fire, which pairs it with the insect's glow. The frame of the poem is that contrast: the firefly knows its time and his fire does not. Binding scene and heart with a single pivot word is among the neater things he does.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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