見し人もなき山里の岩垣に
心長くも這へる葛かな
心長くも這へる葛かな
- Roma-ji
-
Mishi hito mo naki yamazato no iwagaki ni
kokoro nagaku mo haeru kuzu kana - English Translation
-
On the wall of rock
of a hill village where he
I knew is no more,
how long and constant of heart
the creeping vine has spread out
- Meaning
- On the rock wall of a hill village where the man I knew is gone, how long and constant of heart the vine has crept.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
The fourth of the five, spoken by the Master of the Prince's Household. "The man I knew" is the late Eighth Prince, and the poem recalls their acquaintance while he lived. A note of mourning runs through the party, and Uji is shown as a place bound up with the memory of the dead.
Iwagaki is a face of piled rock standing like a wall. Kuzu is a vine that runs a long way, and kokoro nagashi is patient and unchanging. The long creeping of the vine and the constancy of a heart are joined in the single word nagashi. Nature going on unchanged after its master is gone makes his absence felt the more.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
-
Izuko yori aki wa yukikemu yamazato no
momiji no kage wa sugiuki mono o - Next Poem
-
Aki hatete sabishisa masaru ko no moto o
fuki na sugushi so mine no matsukaze