It is not that I
single out the autumn dusk
for sorrow, and yet
upon these sleeves, as I gaze,
the dew comes falling astray
- Meaning
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It is not that I single out the autumn dusk for sorrow, and yet as I gaze the dew falls astray upon my sleeves.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Tenarai
While the nun was away at Hatsuse, Ukifune passed the days playing go with the nun Shosho. On an autumn evening, looking out at the garden, she wept in spite of herself and spoke this poem. Directly afterward the Captain came, and she fled to an inner room. Her wish to take vows grew stronger, and she waited for the Bishop to come down from the mountain to beg it of him.
"It is not that I single out the autumn dusk" leans on the old convention that autumn evenings are the saddest, and then denies it. "The dew falls astray" makes tears of dew and describes them scattering. The suggestion, strengthened by the denial, is that it is not the season but her own life that draws the tears.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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