Ikeru yo no shini wa kokoro ni makaseneba
kikade ya yamamu kimi ga hitokoto

English Translation

In this living world
dying is not ours to choose
and so must I end
without ever having heard
that one word of yours to me

Meaning

In this living world dying is not ours to choose; must I end, then, without ever hearing that one word from you?

Commentary

Part Three: Takekawa

　Having got an answer from her at all, and on the very day she left, the Lieutenant could not stop his tears. He wrote straight back, adding reproachfully that it was no one's name but hers that would be talked of, and sent this poem. He went on to say that if he could believe she would show him any kindness once he lay under his mound, he would gladly hurry to his death. Reading it, she was distressed to think she had answered badly, and that the woman had sent her words on without copying them over, and she said nothing more.

　The poem echoes a Shuishu poem on how, if living and dying went as one wished, one would not be left to grieve twice over. Since death is not his to command, he asks, must he end without her one word? Taking up her "upon what sort of person is it a thing to bestow," he answers that he is the one waiting for it. His remark about whose name would be talked of comes from a Kokinshu poem about dying of love, and turns the reproach on her. The mound recalls the old story of the envoy who hung his sword on a tree by a dead lord's grave, and shows a man who wants kindness even after death.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Ikeru yo no shini wa kokoro ni makaseneba kikade ya yamamu kimi ga hitokoto

Ikeru yo no shini wa kokoro ni makaseneba
kikade ya yamamu kimi ga hitokoto