Counting over all
the months and days that go by
cold and heedless still
how full of resentment is
this evening at spring's ending
- Meaning
-
Counting over the months and days that pass, cold and heedless still, how full of resentment this evening at the end of spring.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Takekawa
With the elder sister's entry into the Retired Emperor's household settled, the Chamberlain Lieutenant went as usual to the Fujiwara Chamberlain's room to say what there was no use in saying. He found him reading a letter from Kaoru. Guessing what it was, he snatched it away, and the Chamberlain, who did not want to look as though there were something to hide, let him have it. Nothing in it was said outright; it only hinted at a grievance in love, and this poem stood at the edge of it. The Lieutenant thought bitterly that the other man could be so unhurried and so seemly about it while he himself was fretting until the world laughed at him, and unable to say anything he went off to the room of Chujo no Omoto, who carried his messages.
"Tsurenaku" is both the season going on without regard for his feelings and the lady's coldness toward him. "Mono urameshiki kure no haru" likewise folds regret at the end of spring into resentment at her going. The complaint is never made head-on; it is let out through the picture of a spring drawing to a close. It was exactly that restraint that the Lieutenant found so galling in him. From this poem the latter half of the chapter moves toward the Lieutenant's undoing.
- Author
-
Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
-
Genji Monogatari
- Other
-