をりからやあはれも知らむ梅の花
ただ香ばかりに移りしもせじ
ただ香ばかりに移りしもせじ
- Roma-ji
-
Orikara ya aware mo shiramu ume no hana
tada ka bakari ni utsuri shi mo seji - English Translation
-
It is the season
that makes you feel it so much
the plum blossom's scent
and nothing more than the scent
would not have drawn you like this
- Meaning
- It is the season that makes you feel it so; the plum's scent and nothing more would never have drawn you like this.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Takekawa
A woman behind the blind answered the Lieutenant with this as he sighed and made to leave. The next morning a letter came from Kaoru to the Fujiwara Chamberlain, and the exchange of poems went on elsewhere.
The plum blossom is Kaoru, taken straight from the other poem's "flower." "Ka bakari," only the scent, also reads as "kabakari," as much as this, so that she says no mere fragrance could move hearts so far. It is the season, not the scent itself, that has them all in thrall. Turned around, it tells him that his own season may yet come, and so it makes light of his despair and encourages him at once, in the tactful manner of a gentlewoman.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Hito wa mina hana ni kokoro o utsusuramu
hitori zo madou haru no yo no yami - Next Poem
-
Takekawa no hashi uchiideshi hitofushi ni
fukaki kokoro no soko wa shiriki ya