雲のゐる峰のかけ路を秋霧の
いとど隔つるころにもあるかな
いとど隔つるころにもあるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Kumo no iru mine no kakeji o akigiri no
itodo hedatsuru koro ni mo aru kana - English Translation
-
Over the steep path
by the peak where clouds have come
to rest, the autumn
mist sets itself all the more—
such is the season we keep
- Meaning
- Over the steep path by the clouded peak the autumn mist comes down all the more; such is the season we are in.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Hashihime
Oigimi's answer to Kaoru's poem at first light. Her father was shut away at the mountain temple, and she says that mist lies over the road to him. Kaoru had complained that mist kept him from going home; she turns the complaint aside into a matter of the distance from her father, and both her reserve and her skill at leaving no opening are apparent.
The steep path by the peak where the clouds rest is the mountain road leading to her father's temple. Itodo is all the more. She takes up the word mist that he had used and answers that what it separates is herself and her father, turning his words neatly aside. The distance Kaoru and Oigimi will keep through the Uji chapters is set from this first exchange.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- More easily than the dew on leaves that give way to the mountain wind, and for no cause I can name, these tears of mine break and fall
- In the growing light I cannot see the road home— Maki no O hill, which I came so far to seek, has filled itself up with mist
- Having fathomed how the lady of the bridge feels, I pole the shallows, and with the drops from the pole my own sleeves have been soaked through
- Poling back and forth, the ferryman of Uji must have let the drops of morning and of evening rot his sleeves quite through at last