女郎花盛りの色を見るからに
露の分きける身こそ知らるれ
露の分きける身こそ知らるれ
- Roma-ji
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Ominaeshi sakari no iro o miru kara ni tsuyu no wakikeru mi koso shirarure
- English Translation
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Maidenflowers bloom
in the full color of their prime;
the moment I look,
I know too well this self of mine
the dew has passed by, set apart
- Meaning
- The moment I look upon the maidenflower in the full color of its prime, I am made to feel how the dew has set me apart, passing me over and leaving its blessing elsewhere.
- Commentary
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3 The Exchange over the Maidenflower
In the early autumn of Kankō 5 (1008), Empress Shōshi, expecting a child, had withdrawn to her family residence, Fujiwara no Michinaga's Tsuchimikado mansion. One morning, as Murasaki Shikibu looked out from her room by the doorway of the gallery, a faint mist hung in the air and the morning dew had not yet fallen, yet Michinaga was already walking the garden, summoning his guards to clear the garden stream. He had a spray of maidenflower, blooming splendidly south of the bridge, broken off, and with it in hand he peered over the top of her curtain screen. Beside his imposing figure, Murasaki was painfully aware of her own just-awakened face and felt ashamed.
Murasaki Shikibu was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki and served as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō. Fujiwara no Michinaga, called simply "the Lord," was Shōshi's father and, as Minister of the Left, stood at the summit of the court.
Seizing on Michinaga's remark, "It would be poor form to be slow with this," Murasaki moved to her inkstone and wrote this poem.
Michinaga smiled, exclaimed "My, how quick!" and called for an inkstone of his own, answering with "Shiratsuyu wa wakitemo okaji ominaeshi kokoro kara ni ya iro no somuramu."
The poem was included in the Miscellaneous section of the Shin Kokin Wakashū as Murasaki Shikibu's work, together with Michinaga's reply.
The opening word, "maidenflower," names the very blossom Michinaga held out. In the second and third lines, "the moment I look" captures the instant her eyes fall on the flower in full bloom.
The lower verses speak of "this self the dew has set apart," a self the dew has passed over while it settled on the maidenflower and dyed it beautiful; the dew stands for favor or grace. The emphatic construction ending in the spontaneous auxiliary conveys a realization that comes unbidden. By setting the flower at its peak against a self past her prime, the poem carries straight into verse the embarrassment she felt at her just-awakened face.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
- Next Poem
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Shiratsuyu wa wakitemo okaji ominaeshi kokoro kara ni ya iro no somuramu