Meaning to follow
the one who has crossed over
the mountain of death,
I look at the traces of
her hand and am lost the more
- Meaning
-
Meaning to follow the one who has crossed the mountain of death, I look at the traces of her hand and am the more lost.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Maboroshi
In the Twelfth Month, preparing to take vows, Genji began destroying all the letters he had kept. Among them was a bundle from Murasaki no Ue, sent while he was in exile at Suma. Her hand and her words were as fresh as ever, and his eyes clouded so that he could not read on. He spoke this poem to himself. He then had the women tear the letters up and put them in the fire. With that, the sorting of everything that had been hers was over.
"The mountain of death" is the one the dead are said to cross. "The one who has crossed" is Murasaki no Ue. "Meaning to follow" is wanting to go after her. "The traces of her hand" is her writing, that is, the letters. "Am lost the more" is being thrown into confusion. He took up her things as a way of holding to her and they only unsettled him, and the poem stays entirely inside that concrete act of sorting.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-