憂きものと思ひも知らで過ぐす身を
もの思ふ人と人は知りけり
もの思ふ人と人は知りけり
- Roma-ji
-
Uki mono to omoi mo shirade sugusu mi o
mono omou hito to hito wa shirikeri - English Translation
-
I pass my days here
without even knowing them
to be bitter ones,
and yet, it seems, I was thought
by others one who broods
- Meaning
- I pass my days without even knowing them to be bitter, and yet others, it seems, took me for one who broods.
- Commentary
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Part Three: Tenarai
Ukifune's reply. She is not, she says, a person who broods, and so turns his address away outright. In fact the claim that she does not even feel her life to be hard is bravado: in the scene that follows she lies awake among the snoring of the old nuns and laments the life she was not allowed to lose.
She takes his "one who broods" and gives it back in the negative: a well made answer. "Without even knowing them to be bitter" is a show of feeling nothing. Hito wa shirikeri is put as a discovery—so that is how she was seen—and holds the observation at arm's length. Refusing while letting no wound show is exactly her manner at this stage.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
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