君がため折れるかざしは紫の
雲に劣らぬ花のけしきか
雲に劣らぬ花のけしきか
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi ga tame oreru kazashi wa murasaki no
kumo ni otoranu hana no keshiki ka - English Translation
-
The spray I broke off
for my sovereign's headdress is
a show of flowers
yielding nothing whatever
to the clouds of deep purple
- Meaning
- The spray I broke off for my sovereign's headdress makes a show of flowers that yields nothing to the clouds of deep purple.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Yadorigi
The third poem of the wisteria banquet, spoken by Yugiri. He sat that day before the Emperor and praised the wisteria. It was the period in which, having given his Sixth Daughter to Niou, he was building his weight at court still further. He had once sought a match with Kaoru and been refused, but here he keeps to a well made blessing suited to the occasion and lets no private feeling show.
Kimi ga tame is for the sovereign's sake. "Clouds of purple" are the auspicious clouds of that colour, set beside the colour of the wisteria. He uses the form, following the Kokinshu poem that takes chrysanthemums for stars, of raising a flower to something of heaven. Keshiki ka is an exclamation, closing on praise of the flower in front of him. He keeps the dignity a banquet requires.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Meaning to break it for my sovereign's headdress, I have laid my own sleeve on a wisteria branch that lies beyond my reaching
- It is a flower that will bloom and be fragrant through ten thousand years, and so today too I look on a hue none can tire of
- It does not look like a colour of the common world—this wisteria, whose flowering waves have risen as far as the reach of cloud
- Wondering whether the face-bird's voice runs close to the one I once heard, I have parted the thickets and come seeking it today