波越ゆるころとも知らず末の松
待つらむとのみ思ひけるかな
待つらむとのみ思ひけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Nami koyuru koro to mo shirazu Sue no Matsu
matsuramu to nomi omoikeru kana - English Translation
-
Not knowing that this
was the season when the waves
go over, I thought
only that the pine of Sue
was waiting there for me still
- Meaning
- Not knowing that this was the season when the waves go over, I thought only that the pine of Sue was still waiting for me.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Ukifune
When Kaoru's messenger and Niou's ran into each other at Uji, Kaoru learned what lay between Ukifune and Niou. Turning it over on the road home, he sent a retainer to Uji with this poem. Its charge of inconstancy struck her hard, and she could only send the letter back with the excuse that it had come to the wrong house. Kaoru set watchmen at the villa, and Niou's visits were blocked as well.
The poem leans on the old verse swearing that waves will never cross the pine hill of Sue; for waves to cross it is the standard figure for a change of heart. Matsu, to wait, carries matsu, pine. Not one word of reproach is used, and yet by borrowing the old form he names the betrayal exactly. It is Kaoru's way of closing in: quiet, and all reasoning.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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