大空の月だに宿るわが宿に
待つ宵過ぎて見えぬ君かな
待つ宵過ぎて見えぬ君かな
- Roma-ji
-
Ōzora no tsuki dani yadoru waga yado ni
matsu yoi sugite mienu kimi kana - English Translation
-
At this house of mine,
where even the moon of the
wide sky puts up, now
the evening of waiting goes
by, and you are not in sight
- Meaning
- At this house of mine, where even the moon of the wide sky puts up, the evening of waiting goes by and you are nowhere in sight.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Yadorigi
Yugiri had long wished to give his Sixth Daughter to Niou, and at last, persuaded by the Akashi Empress, Niou consented. On the night of the wedding in the Eighth Month, Yugiri had everything ready and waited, but Niou could not bring himself to leave Naka no Kimi and was slow to appear. Losing patience, Yugiri sent this to hurry him. Niou set out at last, the marriage with the Sixth Daughter was made, and Naka no Kimi was left to grieve.
"Where even the moon of the wide sky puts up" is a boast about the house, grand enough for the moon itself to stop at, and yadoru leads to waga yado in the same line. Matsu yoi is a night of waiting, here the wedding night. Bringing in the moon to praise his own standing while reproaching the man who will not come shows the weight Yugiri throws about as a man of power. That a poem of reminder should be sent on the wedding night itself says a good deal about the nature of the match.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- I should have looked at her as a likeness and kept her for my own—this morning glory that the white dew pledged itself to and left
- Beside the frailty of a flower that withers before the dew goes, it is the dew left behind that is frailer than the rest
- Even in the shade of the pines of a mountain village there was no autumn wind that went into me so deeply as this one
- The maiden flower is more drooping than before—how, I wonder, did the morning dew set itself down and leave this trace behind it