山里の雪間の若菜摘みはやし
なほ生ひ先の頼まるるかな
なほ生ひ先の頼まるるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Yamazato no yukima no wakana tsumihayashi
nao oisaki no tanomaruru kana - English Translation
-
Gathering and prizing
the young herbs from between the
snows of this hill place,
I find I still put my trust
in the growing years ahead
- Meaning
- Gathering and prizing the young herbs from between the snows of this hill village, I find I still trust in the years ahead of you.
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Tenarai
The nun's reply. Taking the new year's young herbs as her occasion, she tells Ukifune that her life is still before her. The nun never stopped regretting the girl's vows, and that feeling shows here as well. Ukifune answered that she would live henceforth for the nun's sake, and the two of them settled into an easier relation.
"Young herbs from between the snows" are the shoots that come up where the snow has melted, gathered on the first Day of the Rat in the new year as a charm for long life. Tsumi hayashi is to gather and make much of a thing. Oisaki is the years that lie ahead. Using the new year's herbs to bless a young person's future, the poem keeps the form of a poem of congratulation.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- It is the world at large that you have turned from, and yet, taking the words of your renouncing to me, it is my own lot that hurts
- Though I look out at the snow that darkens the fields and hills, what has passed and fallen away from me is sorrowful again today
- From this time onward I shall gather them for you, year after year: these young herbs of the fields, where the snow is lying deep upon them
- The one whose sleeve brushed mine is nowhere to be seen, and yet the scent of the blossom breathes as though it were his, this spring daybreak