里の名も昔ながらに見し人の
面変はりせる閨の月影
面変はりせる閨の月影
- Roma-ji
-
Sato no na mo mukashi nagara ni mishi hito no
omogawari seru neya no tsukikage - English Translation
-
The name of this place
is as it was of old, and
yet the face of one
I knew is altered under
this moonlight in the bedroom
- Meaning
- The name of this place is as it was of old, and yet the face of the one I knew is altered in this moonlight of the bedchamber.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Azumaya
Kaoru's answer to Ben's poem. He did not send it as a reply, we are told; he murmured it, and Jiju carried it to her. The name of the place and his own heart are as they were, and only the person there has changed: with that lament the Azumaya chapter closes. Regretting that Ukifune has no accomplishment in the koto or the old poems, he still cannot let go of the woman in whom Oigimi's likeness lives.
It is a well made reply, taking over mukashi and tsuki from her poem. "The name of this place" is Uji. Omogawari is a change in a person's face, said of the change from Oigimi to Ukifune. "The moonlight of the bedchamber" is the moon falling into the sleeping room, lighting the fact that the woman lying there is now someone else. The cast of Kaoru's mind, always after a likeness, which he carries through the whole Uji sequence, is stated plainly at the chapter's close.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- The lodging tree has altered in its colour now that autumn is here, and yet how clear the moon is, recalling the days of old
- It is not yet an old thing, worn out and gone by— and for your sake I would have you know that I wait here with a heart that is deep
- Though I promise you a long age of years, what still grieves me is only this: that our lives are lives which know nothing of tomorrow