あはれ知る心は人におくれねど
数ならぬ身に消えつつぞ経る
数ならぬ身に消えつつぞ経る
- Roma-ji
-
Aware shiru kokoro wa hito ni okurenedo
kazu naranu mi ni kietsutsu zo furu - English Translation
-
My heart, which knows how
to feel, falls behind no one's,
and yet, being of
no account at all, I pass
my days as one going out
- Meaning
- My heart, which knows how to feel, falls behind no one's; and yet, being of no account, I pass my days like something going out.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Kagero
Having lost Ukifune, Kaoru went about the bright life of the capital with no ease in his mind. Kozaisho no Kimi, a gentlewoman in the Akashi Empress's service whom he liked for her quickness and her feeling, guessed at his grief and sent him this. He answered without letting anything of himself out, and went on afterwards keeping her neither close nor distant.
"A heart that knows how to feel" is one open to the quality of things and to another's grief. Hito ni okurenedo is that it falls behind nobody's. Kazu naranu mi, a self of no account, is the set phrase by which a gentlewoman lowers her own standing. Kie tsutsu zo furu is to pass one's days as though going out like a flame, an expression that belongs with dew and smoke. The form of a gentlewoman's poem—offering feeling while keeping to her place—is well observed.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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