絶え果てぬ清水になどか亡き人の
面影をだにとどめざりけむ
面影をだにとどめざりけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Taehatenu shimizu ni nadoka naki hito no
omokage o dani todomezarikemu - English Translation
-
Why did this water,
which has never once run dry,
not keep for me at
least the shadow of the face
of those who are here no more
- Meaning
- Why did this water, which has never run dry, not keep for me even the shadow of the faces of those who are gone?
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Azumaya
Kaoru went to the villa at Uji and thought of the dead Eighth Prince and Oigimi. The stream in the garden ran on as it always had, never drying, and yet the figures it must once have reflected were gone. He spoke this to himself, complaining of that injustice to the water. On this visit Ben the nun told him that Ukifune was living hidden at Sanjo in the capital, and he resolved to have her act as go-between and go to the house himself.
"Water that has never run dry" is a garden stream, set here as the type of what does not change. "Those who are gone" means both the prince and Oigimi. Omokage o dani is at least the face, if nothing more. Since water reflects a figure, the reasoning is that it might have kept the reflection; the complaint is made in full knowledge that it is impossible. The contrast between unchanging nature and the people who have been lost is a pattern that recurs throughout the Uji chapters.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- How wholly glad I would be, if I could believe that this were a place somewhere apart from the world, and not a part of it all
- Even if I must look for a place that is not in this bitter world, I would find some way to see you in the height of your bloom
- Is the goosegrass thick that stops the doorway up? At the eaves of this east country hut I have waited so long in the falling rain
- Seeing her only as a keepsake of the dead, I find these sleeves of mine soaked with the morning dew until there is no room left