There is a purpose
in the wind that bears the scent
of this garden plum
how should the warbler not come
to it before any else

Meaning

Since the wind bears the scent of this garden plum with a purpose, how should the warbler not come to it before any other?

Commentary

Part Three: Kobai

　This is the tale after Genji's death, and it concerns the house of the Intendant of the Gate Watch, the second son of the late Chancellor, known as the Kobai Dainagon. His elder daughter by his late wife had already gone to the Heir Apparent, and he wished to have his second daughter, Naka no Kimi, taken by Niou. His present wife was Makibashira, and her own daughter, the Lady of the Chamber, lived in the same house. One day he saw how splendidly the red plum near the eaves at the eastern end had colored, and he told the boy to break off a branch and take it to Niou, who was said to be at the palace. Just then he was remembering how, as a child, he had waited close upon Genji in the days when Genji was still a Commander, and he could not hold down his longing for the man who was gone. Deciding that Niou was the only keepsake of Genji left in the world, he wrote this poem in a youthful hand on red paper. The boy slipped it in among his own papers, went to the palace, and gave it to Niou, who was so pleased with the flower that he would not put it down, and who sent his answer back the next morning.

　The garden plum stands for Naka no Kimi and the warbler for Niou. Using the old pairing of plum and warbler, he puts a proposal that the Prince should come to his daughter into the language of flowers. "Kokoro arite" says that even the wind has intentions in carrying the scent, and behind it lies the sender's own design. The poem draws on Ki no Tomonori's poem in the Kokinshu about sending the scent of a flower with the wind to draw the warbler in, so that the very act of breaking off a branch and sending it repeats an older poem. "Towazu ya aru beki" says that it cannot be that he will not come, and leaves no room for refusal. That force is what makes Niou's cool answer tell. It is the first poem of the chapter, and it stands in the scene of the red plum that gave the chapter its name.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

There is a purpose in the wind that bears the scent of this garden plum how should the warbler not come to it before any else

There is a purpose
in the wind that bears the scent
of this garden plum
how should the warbler not come
to it before any else