嘆きわび身をば捨つとも亡き影に
憂き名流さむことをこそ思へ
憂き名流さむことをこそ思へ
- Roma-ji
-
Nagekiwabi mi o ba sutsu tomo naki kage ni
uki na nagasamu koto o koso omoe - English Translation
-
Though, worn out with grief,
I throw this body away,
what troubles me is
that a bitter name will be
set adrift upon my shade
- Meaning
- Though, worn out with grief, I throw this body away, what troubles me is that a bitter name will be set adrift upon my shade.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Ukifune
Hearing from Ukon and Jiju the sad story of Ukon's elder sister, Ukifune came to wish for death in earnest. To go on living between the two men could only end badly for both of them; if so, she thought, there was nothing for it but that she alone should disappear. Even so, she says in this poem, the talk that would follow her death still troubles her. From here she begins quietly setting her affairs in order, burning her letters.
Nageki wabu is to be worn past bearing by grief. "To throw the body away" is here to drown oneself. Naki kage is the spirit after death, and uki na nagasu is to have an ill name spread abroad, with nagasu, to set adrift, belonging with the river and hinting at the drowning. The movement of a mind that has settled on death and still minds what the world will say is put plainly, and the concern for one's name that all the women of the Uji chapters share is strong in it.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- 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
- Wondering where I might throw this body away, I go weeping through hills that not even the white clouds have come to rest upon
- If I do not leave even this husk behind me in the bitter world, you too will hold it against me, with no grave left to mark
- Think of it, that we shall look upon each other again hereafter, and do not let your heart be confused by this world's dreaming