When I take the name
of this place to be my own,
then the neighbourhood
of Uji in Yamashiro
grows harder still to live in
- Meaning
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When I take the name of this place for my own, the neighbourhood of Uji in Yamashiro grows harder still to live in.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Ukifune
With the two letters before her, this rose in Ukifune's mind. That the name Uji sounds as ushi, bitter, had been played on in poetry from far back; now it had become her own condition. Unable to tell the truth to Kaoru or to Niou, and unable to speak of it to her mother, she had no choice but to go on living in the place. From this day her mind begins to turn toward death.
"The name of this place" is Uji. Playing Uji against ushi is a device as old as the Kokinshu, and in this chapter the pun comes to state the heroine's whole situation. Waga mi ni shiru is to know a thing by applying it to oneself. Itodo is all the more. What had been no more than a play on a place name sounds here like a fact there is no getting out of.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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