かき曇り日かげも見えぬ奥山に
心をくらすころにもあるかな
心をくらすころにもあるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Kakikumori hikage mo mienu okuyama ni
kokoro o kurasu koro ni mo aru kana - English Translation
-
In these deep mountains
where the sky has clouded over
and no sunlight shows,
these are days in which I pass
the hours with a darkened heart
- Meaning
- In these deep mountains where the sky has clouded over and no sunlight shows, I pass these days with a darkened heart.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
In the Eleventh Month Kaoru came to Uji and was shocked at how far Oigimi had failed. He stayed on and nursed her devotedly. Rites were said and food pressed on her to no purpose, and she weakened by the day. Soon after this poem she died with him beside her.
Kaki kumoru is to cloud over entirely. Hikage is sunlight, and serves as a figure for hope. Kokoro o kurasu is to pass one's days with a darkened mind, with kurasu, to live out the day, sounding in it. The darkened sky outside and the darkened mind within are joined in one word, and the poem catches the very stretch of time in which hope of recovery is being cut off.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Prev Poem
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Akatsuki no shimo uchiharai naku chidori
mono omou hito no kokoro o ya shiru - Next Poem
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Kurenai ni otsuru namida mo kai naki wa
katami no iro o somenu narikeri