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
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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
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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
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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