千世の春見るべき花と祈りおきて
わが身ぞ雪とともにふりぬる
わが身ぞ雪とともにふりぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Chiyo no haru mirubeki hana to inoriokite
waga mi zo yuki to tomo ni furinuru - English Translation
-
Praying that you were
a flower to see a thousand
springs, I find my own
body has grown old along
with the snow as it came down
- Meaning
- Having prayed that you were a flower to see a thousand springs, I find my own body has grown old along with the falling snow.
- Commentary
-
Part Two: Maboroshi
The officiant of the rite answered Genji's poem with this one. He had prayed that Genji was a flower to see a thousand springs, he says, and his own body has meanwhile grown old—a wish for Genji's long life with his own decline added to it. He was the priest who had conducted the services at Rokujo for many years, and he had watched Genji's whole life from close by. With this exchange the tale moves on to the last day of the year and to Genji's final poem.
"A thousand springs" is life without limit. "A flower to see" them is Genji himself. "Having prayed" is having made the wish. "My own body" sets white hair against the snow. "Grown old" plays on the verb for snow falling, so it belongs with the snow. Receiving Genji's snow and spring unchanged and turning them toward age makes a courteous reply.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Gathered up and looked at, they come to nothing—these salt-weeds of hers; so let them be smoke and go up into that same sky as she
- Not knowing whether I shall live until the spring, let me wear today in my hair this plum that has taken color in the snow
- Lost in my own thoughts, not knowing the months and days as they went past me— is it today that the year and my own life come to an end
- How unsure it is and of whom am I to ask by what means to learn the beginning and the end of this body I know not