The Weaver's meeting
I watch as a thing beyond
the clouds, apart from
me, while in this garden of
parting the dew settles more
- Meaning
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The Weaver's meeting I watch as something beyond the clouds and apart from me, while in this garden of parting the dew settles deeper still.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Maboroshi
The seventh of the Seventh Month came round. For the world it was the day the two stars meet; for Genji it was the day he was made to know that he would never meet her again. The next morning, looking out at a garden soaked with dew, he spoke this poem to himself. The pattern—each observance throwing her absence into relief—repeats all through the chapter. The first anniversary of her death, on the fourteenth of the Eighth Month, was approaching, and he would share his grief with those who served him.
The festival is the one night a year on which the Weaver and the Herdsman meet. "Meeting" contains a word for a shallows, which belongs with the River of Heaven. "Beyond the clouds, apart from me" is something that has nothing to do with him. "This garden of parting" is a garden given over to it. "The dew settles more" has dew for tears, and the verb belongs with the dew. Stars that meet once a year are set against a man who will never meet again.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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