Looking at blossoms
I have lived the spring away
and from this day on
must I wander lost beneath
the thicket of my sorrow
- Meaning
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Looking at blossoms I have lived the spring away; from today must I wander lost beneath a thicket of grief?
- Commentary
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Part Three: Takekawa
The next day the Fourth Month began. His brothers were busy going to and from the palace, but the Lieutenant sat sunk in his thoughts, and his mother was near tears over him. His father the Minister regretted not having spoken of the matter when he had had his interview, and told him that if he pressed his own suit in earnest the lady could hardly refuse him outright. And so, as usual, he sent the elder sister this poem.
The blossom is the lady, and he says he has spent the spring looking at her as one looks at a flower. "Shigeki" carries "thick-growing trees" and "nageki" carries "cast-off wood," so that the depth of his grief is figured through the language of trees. "Today" is both the first day of the new month and the day her entry into the Retired Emperor's household became certain. As the season ends, so does his hope: a poem of regret for the passing spring laid over a lost love. It is not she who answers, but one of her women.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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