風に散ることは世のつね枝ながら
うつろふ花をただにしも見じ
うつろふ花をただにしも見じ
- Roma-ji
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Kaze ni chiru koto wa yo no tsune eda nagara
utsurou hana o tada ni shi mo miji - English Translation
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That they scatter here
in the wind is the world's way
but a flower that fades
while it still clings to the branch
I could not watch unmoved
- Meaning
- That they scatter in the wind is the way of the world, but a flower that fades while still on the branch I could not watch unmoved.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Takekawa
This is the younger sister's answer to Saisho's show of indifference. The cherry is hers now by the outcome of the game. After it come a poem from Tayu, a gentlewoman on her side, one from a girl of the same side, and one from Nareki, a girl of the losing side: six in all.
She grants first that scattering in the wind is the way of the world, taking up the other poem's words, and then turns: what she could not watch calmly is a flower that fades while still on the branch. "Utsurou" is the fading of a flower's color, and the color of the loser's face can be read into it. "Tada ni shimo miji" is that one cannot look on as though nothing were happening. It is the winner teasing, gently, the one who is making light of her loss.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Saku to mite katsu wa chirinuru hana nareba
makuru o fukaki urami to mo sezu - Next Poem
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awa to narite mo waga kata ni yore