来し方を思ひ出づるもはかなきを
行く末かけてなに頼むらむ
行く末かけてなに頼むらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Koshikata o omoiizuru mo hakanaki o
yukusue kakete nani tanomuramu - English Translation
-
Even to look back
and call up what has gone by
is to find it frail;
on what, then, should I rely
for all the time still to come
- Meaning
- Even to look back on what has gone by is to find it frail; on what, then, should I rely for the time still to come?
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
After Oigimi's death Niou came to Uji and swore that his feeling had not changed. Meeting so practised a manner, Naka no Kimi could not take it simply. Nor could she forget that it was he who had brought her sister to such distress, and a coldness shows through the reply.
Koshikata, the time gone by, and yukusue, the time to come, are a standing pair. Hakanashi is not to be relied on. Since the past has proved untrustworthy, no promise about the future can be believed: a refusal grounded in what she has lived through. This is the point at which Naka no Kimi, having lost father and sister, begins to make her way alone.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Not to be left here, I follow with my longing the moon crossing the sky, since this is not a world where one may go on dwelling long
- Wanting so to know the drug by which one may die of longing at last, shall I go into the snow of the hills and leave no trace
- If you have decided that the time to come is short, then at the least, while I am here before your eyes, I would have you not turn away
- Because it was for you that I have picked them through so many springs, these are the season's first bracken, unforgetful as ever