山姫の染むる心はわかねども
移ろふ方や深きなるらむ
移ろふ方や深きなるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Yamahime no somuru kokoro wa wakanedomo
utsurou kata ya fukaki naruramu - English Translation
-
What is in the mind
of the lady who dyes them
I cannot make out,
yet surely it is the one
that changes that goes deeper
- Meaning
- What is in the mind of the lady who dyes them I cannot make out, yet surely it is the colour that changes that goes deeper.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
Oigimi's reply to his poem on the autumn leaves. She says that it is the changing colour that grows deep, hinting that his own heart will in time move to her sister. Her wish to see the younger married to him is plain in the answer.
She takes his yamahime and "deeper colour" exactly as given and shifts the sense with the single word utsurou, which is both a colour changing and a heart turning elsewhere. Refusing him and recommending her sister are managed at once within one figure of two shades of red.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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Onaji eda o wakite somekeru yamahime ni
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Ominaeshi sakeru ōno o fusegitsutsu
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