すきものと名にしたてれば見る人の
折らで過ぐるはあらじとぞ思ふ
折らで過ぐるはあらじとぞ思ふ
- Roma-ji
-
Sukimono to na ni shi tatereba miru hito no orade suguru wa araji to zo omou
- English Translation
-
Since you are well known
by the name of the sour fruit,
I would think surely
no one who sees you would pass by
without breaking off a branch
- Meaning
- Since you are known as a lover of romance, like the sour plum, I think no man who sees you could pass by without breaking off a branch, without trying to win you.
- Commentary
-
40 The Exchange on the "Sour Fruit"
Michinaga noticed The Tale of Genji lying before Empress Shōshi and, as usual, fell to joking. He then wrote a poem on the paper spread beneath some plums and handed it to Murasaki.
Michinaga was Empress Shōshi's father and the master of the household Murasaki served. It was known at court that Murasaki had written The Tale of Genji, and Michinaga teased her by alluding to the love affairs depicted in her tale.
Writing on the paper beneath the plums, Michinaga played on "sukimono," both sour fruit and a person given to love, to tease Murasaki, the author of a tale of romance.
Murasaki answered with "Hito ni mada orarenu mono o tare ka kono sukimono zo to wa kuchinarashikemu," adding "How outrageous!" in protest. Immediately after this exchange comes the scene in which someone knocks at her door one night as she sleeps in the gallery.
The opening lines say "since you are known by the name of sukimono," a word meaning both the sour plums and a person devoted to love; an intensifying particle and a conditional form establish the premise.
The lower verses state that no one would pass by without breaking off a branch, likening the plucking of a plum branch to making a woman one's own, through a negative connective, an auxiliary of negative conjecture and an emphatic construction. Deftly using the plums at hand, the poem playfully teases Murasaki, the writer of a love story.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Michinaga
- Source
- Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
- Prev Poem
-
Toshi kurete waga yo fukeyuku kaze no oto ni kokoro no uchi no susamajiki kana
- Next Poem
-
Hito ni mada orarenu mono o tare ka kono sukimono zo to wa kuchinarashikemu