At the flute's voice, things
long ago came back to me,
and at the hour when
you were turning home again
my sleeves too were wet with tears
- Meaning
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At the flute's voice things long ago came back to me, and at the hour of your going home my sleeves too were wet.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Tenarai
The nun's reply. She speaks plainly of missing her daughter and says that her own sleeves were wet. To her the Captain was her dead daughter's husband, and his coming was itself a way of remembering the girl. It is this warmth of hers that keeps him coming to the house, and adds to the weight on Ukifune.
She takes his fuedake as fue no ne and repeats his "things long ago": a well made answer. Shinobaru is to be brought to mind of itself. Kaerishi hodo is the hour of his going, and the tears that came after he had gone. His poem carries an appeal to Ukifune; hers takes the whole of it as talk of her daughter, and the crossing of purposes may well be deliberate.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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