見る人もあらしにまよふ山里に
昔おぼゆる花の香ぞする
昔おぼゆる花の香ぞする
- Roma-ji
-
Miru hito mo arashi ni mayou yamazato ni
mukashi oboyuru hana no ka zo suru - English Translation
-
There will be no one
left to see them, in this hill
village where the storm
goes astray—and yet the scent
of flowers recalls old days
- Meaning
- There will be no one left to see them in this hill village where the storm goes astray, and yet the scent of the flowers recalls the old days.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Sawarabi
With the day of her removal at hand, Naka no Kimi had to leave the villa at Uji where she had always lived. In the garden the red plum her sister had loved was in bloom, and a warbler was singing. She sent this poem to Kaoru, saying that there would soon be no one left to look at these flowers. He answered it, and came to think of turning the villa in time into a temple. On the night before she left, the two of them talked of Oigimi until late.
Arashi is both the storm and, by sound, araji, there will be none, so that a scene of wind and the lament that no one will remain are held in one word. "The scent of flowers that recalls the old days" is the plum whose fragrance brings back the days spent with her sister. The flowers go on blooming and breathing scent while only those who looked at them go away, and that shape sets out plainly the unsteadiness of one about to leave Uji.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- A flowering branch on which one who looks at it will hang a grievance— I should have taken more care before I broke it, it seems
- How brief a thing—no sooner is the robe of haze cut out than the time has come round for the flowers to loosen and open out
- The plum my sleeve brushed is unaltered in its scent, and yet is it the dwelling, moving root and all, that is to be otherwise
- Had I thrown myself into the river of tears that comes first of all, mine would have been a life not left behind by the one gone