おなじ枝を分きて染めける山姫に
いづれか深き色と問はばや
いづれか深き色と問はばや
- Roma-ji
-
Onaji eda o wakite somekeru yamahime ni
izure ka fukaki iro to towabaya - English Translation
-
I would put it to
the lady of the mountain,
who dyed one same branch
in two colours: which of them
is it that she made the deeper
- Meaning
- I would ask the lady of the mountain, who dyed one same branch in two colours, which of them she made the deeper.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
Oigimi meant her sister for Kaoru in her own place, and kept trying to turn his feeling aside. He answers that his heart was hers from the beginning. Their argument over the two sisters leads on to the scheme by which he brings Niou to Uji.
Yamahime is the goddess said to dye the leaves of the hills in autumn. "One same branch" stands for two sisters born of one parent. To ask which is deeper is a rhetorical question: there is no need to ask, since his heart is with the elder. Beneath the graceful figure of two shades of autumn colour lies a will that will not accept the substitution.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Tori no ne mo kikoenu yama to omoishi o
yo no uki koto wa tazune kinikeri - Next Poem
-
Yamahime no somuru kokoro wa wakanedomo
utsurou kata ya fukaki naruramu