Since it is a flower
that scatters on the same day
we see it open
losing it is not a thing
to hold as a deep grievance
- Meaning
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Since it is a flower that scatters on the very day we see it open, losing it is not a thing to hold as a deep grievance.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Takekawa
Saisho, a gentlewoman in the elder sister's service, added this in support of her mistress's poem. She is the same woman who had addressed the poem about breaking off the plum to Kaoru in the First Month. The younger sister answered at once, and the women and girls of both sides went on capping one another.
To open and in the same breath to scatter is the standard way of speaking of the cherry's brevity. Since the flower is so unreliable, she says, there is no deep grievance in having it taken. "Makuru" is to lose at go, so the stake and the outcome of the game are tied together in the one poem. A gentlewoman takes over her mistress's chagrin and makes light of it, which is what poems spoken in company are for.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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