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
- Meaning
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The plum my sleeve brushed is unaltered in its scent; is it the dwelling, moving root and all, that will be otherwise?
- Commentary
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Part Three: Sawarabi
Kaoru's reply to her poem on the plum. He says that the flower does not change, and that it is the household, pulled up root and all, that will be different, so grieving over the one who is leaving Uji. The next day, on the seventh of the Second Month, Naka no Kimi was received at the Nijo residence and treated by Niou with great care. Only the old nun Ben was left at Uji, and Kaoru went forward with his plan of turning the villa into a temple.
"The plum my sleeve brushed" is a plum whose scent has passed into a sleeve, a phrase that has suggested the tie between one person and another since the old poems. Negome is root and all, wholly. Utsurou is to shift and alter, and taking over her "recalls the old days" he turns it back: what alters is not the flower but the person. Following plum, scent, root, dwelling, the fact of a change of house comes to lie over a fear of a change of heart.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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