Having passed my life
so frailly, I will not go
seeking out again
those bitter shallows, nor the
two cedars of the old stream
- Meaning
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Having passed my life so frailly, I will not go seeking out those bitter shallows again, nor the two cedars by the old stream.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Tenarai
In the Ninth Month the nun set out once more for Hatsuse and urged Ukifune to come with her. But Hatsuse was bound up for Ukifune with the days that followed her own pilgrimage there with her mother, when Kaoru had first seen her at Uji on the way home. Resolved never to take that road again, she spoke this poem. The nun answered, sorry to hear it, and went down from the hills leaving her behind.
Furukawa is the old stream at Hatsuse, with heru, to pass one's life, sounding in it. "The bitter shallows" carries the u of Uji and ushi, bitter. The two cedars are a famous spot at Hatsuse, from the Kokinshu poem about meeting again after years beside the two cedars of the old stream at Hatsuse. That she should refuse exactly the meeting the place stands for is the point of the poem.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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