The Tale of Genji

  It occurred to him that if he did not look after the new season's change of clothes53 at Uji properly, no one else would; and so after explaining discreetly to his mother that they were needed now, he sent off the bed curtains, lintel curtains, and so on that he had had made for when Sanjō was finished and his Princess moved there. He asked his nurse and others also to make clothes specially for the women.

  In the tenth month he began insinuating to His Highness that this was a good time to see the weir and suggesting a trip to view the autumn leaves. His Highness preferred to go very quietly, accompanied by his intimate retainers and by the privy gentlemen he particularly favored, but he was too great a lord for that, and the party grew until it was joined by the Consultant Captain, His Excellency of the Right's son.54 The Counselor was the only other senior noble, though. Most of the party were common gentlemen.

  The Counselor kept the elder sister fully informed. “Bear in mind that His Highness will naturally need to break his journey,” he wrote. “Everyone who came with him in the spring of last year to see the blossoms will take advantage of the rain to try to get a glimpse of you.” The blinds were changed, corners swept here and there, a few dead leaves cleared from around the rocks, and the garden brook freed of its waterweeds. He sent refreshments, too, as well as the staff needed to prepare them. Caught between gratitude and exasperation, she resigned herself to the inevitable and prepared herself for what was to come.

  From the house they could hear His Highness's party rowing up and down the river and making very nice music. They could see a little of them, too, and the younger women went to that side of the house to look. His Highness was too far away to recognize, but the boats, roofed with colored leaves, looked as though they were spread with brocade, and on the wind all the instruments playing together sounded almost loud. Even on so discreet an excursion this great Prince, honored and cherished by all the world, appeared especially glorious to the sisters, and it seemed to their gentlewomen that his light would be well worth awaiting if he were the Herd Boy Star himself.55

  His Highness had Doctors in attendance, too, since he planned to have the gathering compose Chinese verse. At dusk he drew his boat up to the bank56 and, to music, set about doing so. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits as with light and dark leaves adorning their hair they played “Immortal of the Deep”; only His Highness was downcast57 and distraught from imagining that there across the river she must be angry with him. All were presented58 with topics that suited the season and hummed their lines of verse.

  The Counselor planned that His Highness should go to her once the general exhilaration had subsided somewhat, and he was just telling His Highness what to do when the Intendant of the Gate Watch, the Consultant Captain's elder brother, arrived with a sternly formal escort to deliver a message from Her Majesty. Word of His Highness's excursion had of course spread, despite his desire to keep it quiet, and the excursion would no doubt be cited in time as a precedent; however, Her Majesty had been surprised to learn that he had set off in an impromptu manner, without a suitably large and dignified retinue. The Intendant had therefore come accompanied by numerous senior nobles, whose presence crippled any further plans. Prince and Counselor alike felt too wretched to take any further interest in the proceedings, but the others, who had no idea what was at stake, drank, roistered, and played music till dawn.

  His Highness had hoped to spend the day where he was, but Her Majesty sent a further, large deputation of her Commissioner59 and other privy gentlemen. Upset and bitterly disappointed, he still had no desire to leave. He wrote to the house across the river. There was nothing artful about the letter, for he had put down quite seriously everything on his mind, but she knew that there was a noisy crowd around him, and she did not answer. It is hopeless for someone as inconsequential as I am to associate with anyone as exalted as he! That was more and more clear to her. It was one thing to resign herself to having him elsewhere, far away, for days and months on end, but for him to carry on this way right in front of her and then to pass on as though she meant nothing to him—that was too cruel and bitter a blow.

  By this time His Highness was beside himself with anxiety and frustration. The very sweetfish of the weir favored him, for they offered themselves to be caught in large numbers and were served on many-colored leaves, to the delight even of the servants. Everyone else, too, felt thoroughly pleased with the excursion. Only His Highness gazed up at the skies in despair and contemplated the fine trees around the old house yonder or the deep hues of the vines twined around the evergreens. Their surroundings look forbidding even from a distance, the Counselor said to himself; and think what assurances he had given them! It was a disaster.

  The gentlemen who had been with His Highness the previous spring remembered the beauty of the blossoms and talked of how lonely the bereaved sisters must be. Some of them must already have caught wind of his secret visits. Others, who knew nothing, chatted on about the sisters anyway, since talk of them had got about despite their isolation among these hills. “I hear they are very pretty,” one remarked; and another, “They are very good on the sō no koto—His Late Highness had them practice day and night.”

  The Consultant Captain said,

  “When can it have been, I caught a glimpse of those trees all in glorious bloom,

  and now autumn has set in, their branches are left forlorn.”

  The Counselor, who felt called on to speak for them, replied,

  “Yes, the cherry trees put this truth very plainly: none of the glory

  of blossoms and autumn leaves lasts long in this fleeting world.”

  And the Intendant:

  “What could be the path autumn took to move elsewhere, when among these hills

  the bright hues of the fall leaves make it so painful to go?”

  Her Majesty's Commissioner:

  “The man I once knew forsook his mountain village, yet the loyal vines

  still clamber among the stones along his old garden wall!”

  He was an old, old man, and he began to weep. He must have been thinking back to when the late Prince was young.

  His Highness:

  “Now autumn is over, loneliness grows and gathers there beneath the trees:

  O do not blow unkindly, wind from pines that clothe the hills!”

  He was very close to tears, and those who knew something of his feelings understood perfectly. Some thought it a great shame that he should let this opportunity pass, but the grandeur of his train made it impossible for him to do otherwise.

  There was much humming of the best parts of their Chinese poems, and they had made up lots of poems in Japanese, too; but how many could really have been worth anything, drunk as they all were? It would be embarrassing to set down any of them.

  Across the river they listened in anguish while the escort's warning cries rang out from farther and farther away. The women had eagerly looked forward to his coming, and they were extremely disappointed, too. No wonder Her Highness was moved to bitter reflections. Why, his heart is just like the dayflower they tell of!60 The little I hear people say suggests that men lie all the time. These worthless women talk when they reminisce about how a man with his endless words can make someone believe he loves her when he does not, and I always assumed people that common were the only ones who could be so perfectly awful—those of a quite different quality would care too much what others might hear of them or think of them, and they would restrain themselves; but no, I was wrong. His Late Highness often heard that this Prince was not to be trusted, and he never even considered allowing him this close. It is just too cruel that after all those impossibly passionate letters and the completely unforeseen moment that joined my sister to him, her misery and mine should only have grown! How is the Counselor taking this despicable behavior? There is no special need to worry about the opinion of anyone here, but whatever they may think, he has made fools of us and held us up to mockery! She was so upset that her mood turned, and she felt very ill. br />
  As for her younger sister, the one most affected, when His Highness did come, he reassured her with such profound sincerity that she derived some comfort from thinking that he would never really and truly reject her and that his absences were due only to obstacles he could not surmount. It bothered her, though, that he stayed away so long, and the way he had gone straight past was too bitterly cruel. She became increasingly melancholy, which her elder sister found very hard to bear. He could never treat her this way if I could do all I should for her and we had a house like other people's. Amid such reflections as these she sank into deepening despair.

  And this is the sort of thing that will happen to me, too, if I go on living. The Counselor goes around promising this and that, but I know he only does it to try me. I cannot put him off forever, though for myself I want none of him. These women here will never learn; all they can think about is bringing this off, too, and I am sure they will get their way in the end, whether I like it or not. This is exactly what he meant when he told us always to be watchful; he was warning us against precisely this. I have no doubt that with our miserable luck we would both outlive anyone who mattered that much to us. There I would be, with people laughing that I had gone just the same way,61 and what cruel suffering I would then have inflicted even on my parents! No, no, I, at least, shall not languish in any such misery. I shall die before I am too deep in sin.62

  In her anguish she refused all food and instead spent day and night pondering nothing but what might lie ahead once she was gone. Her distress made it painful for her merely to look at her sister. How bereft of comfort she will be once she has lost me as well! She is so lovely and so deserving, and she is my pleasure morning and night. I tried to give her a life worthy of her, and secretly that was all I ever wanted, but it would be very bitter indeed for anyone so held up to mockery, however exalted she might be, to go out into the world and make a show of living as others do. No, she concluded miserably, we are hopeless, and it cannot be for the likes of us ever to find comfort in this life!

  His Highness nearly went straight back on one of his usual, clandestine visits, but the Intendant of the Gate Watch had already told His Majesty. “The reason why His Highness suddenly rushed off to that mountain village is that he has a secret affair going on there,” he explained. “I gather that people are privately censuring his reckless behavior.”

  The news troubled Her Majesty, too, when she heard it, and His Majesty was no longer in any mood to allow the young man such freedom. “It is not right for him in any case to spend all the time he wishes at home,” he observed. Strict orders went out, and His Majesty required His Highness immediately to place himself at his disposal at the palace. The young gentleman had resolved that His Excellency of the Right's Sixth Daughter was not for him, but everyone else decreed that he should have her forthwith.

  The Counselor could only deplore this when he heard of it. I am just too odd, he thought. Perhaps it was simply destiny, but I felt for the sisters whose future so worried His Late Highness, and I could never forget them. With all their qualities it seemed such a shame that they should merely waste away, and my zeal to give them a proper life surprised even me. In the end I did what I did, what with His Highness hounding me as well and the unfortunate way the one I want insisted on yielding to her sister, but now that I think it over, I wish I had not. No one could possibly have blamed me for claiming them both for myself. He suffered many foolish torments, but alas, it was too late.

  The matter weighed on His Highness even more. He longed for his Princess at Uji and worried about her. Her Majesty kept telling him, “If there is someone you like especially, give her to me and treat her with normal discretion.63 His Majesty has particular plans for you, and I am extremely sorry to hear that people are calling you reckless.”

  One dull day of hard winter rain he went to call on the First Princess.64 She and the few women with her were looking at pictures together. They talked from either side of a standing curtain. Her infinitely noble distinction, tempered by sweetly yielding grace, had always seemed peerless to him, and he wished there were another like her in all the world. He gathered that His Eminence Reizei's daughter enjoyed her father's high regard and cultivated most elegant ways, but he had never been able to tell her of his enduring admiration. But, ah, she in that mountain village—she in sweetness and nobility yielded nothing to anyone, and the thought of her filled him with intense yearning. By way of distraction he had a look at Her Highness's pictures, which were scattered here and there. They were amusing “ladies' paintings,”65 and they included pictures from the life of a lover. There was a charming house in a mountain village, as well as all sorts of other scenes that had appealed to those who had done them, and many caught his attention especially because they brought his own experience to mind. He thought of asking Her Highness for a few and sending them to Uji. They were illustrations of Tales of Ise,66 and one showed a man teaching his sister the kin and saying, “Alas, that it should go to another.”67

  The sight prompted him for some reason to draw a little closer to her and to whisper, “People in the old days used to see each other face-to-face, when it was proper for them to do so, but you always put such a distance between us!” She could not tell which picture he had in mind, and so he rolled it up and slid it under the curtain to her, and the little of her hair that he glimpsed when she leaned over to look, spilling forth in billowing waves, seemed such a marvel that he longed to think of her as he would have done of someone less closely related. He said,

  “Not that I would dare to lie down in such a place on such tender grasses,

  but still, it is very sad that I have to feel that way!”

  Her women, who were in awe of His Highness, had hidden behind curtains and screens. What a thing to say! He is shocking! she thought and remained silent, which he accepted, because it seemed to him that the lady in the story, “her thoughts all innocence,”68 caught on rather too quickly. Among all the brothers and sisters these two were especially close, since Lady Murasaki had been particularly fond of them. Her Majesty so pampered them that any gentlewomen of theirs with the slightest defect felt very uncomfortable indeed. Most were the daughters of very great lords. His Highness, with his easily shifting feelings, made sure that he had a playful moment or two with every new arrival, and while he never actually forgot Uji, a great many days went by while he failed to undertake any journey there.

  To those awaiting him it was a very long time indeed, and they were sighing that all their fears were confirmed when the Counselor arrived. He had come at the news that the elder was unwell. Although her illness was not grave enough to confuse her wits, she cited it as a pretext for not receiving him.

  “But I have come all this way, and in great anxiety!” he protested. “You must take me to where she is lying”; and so he was led to the blinds behind which she had made herself as comfortable as she could. His presence upset her, but she lifted her head politely enough and answered him as required.

  He told her how His Highness had come so unwillingly to pass by. “Please do not worry,” he said. “You must not hastily condemn him.”

  “She seems not to have said anything about it to him one way or another,” she replied. “As far as I can see, this is the sort of thing our father warned us against. I feel so sorry for her!” He gathered that she was weeping.

  He was deeply pained on her behalf, and even he felt ashamed of himself. “Life seldom remains the same for long one way or another. You may well be angry with him now, knowing as little of these things as you both do, but please make an effort to be patient. For myself, I do not believe that you have any reason to be anxious.” He found himself surprised to be pleading someone else's cause.

  She felt worse at night, and her sister was very worried to have an outsider so near her. “Please, my lord, if you would, there is your usual room…” the women suggested; but he complained to the old woman Ben, “The news that your mistress was ill troubled me very greatly, a
nd I came as soon as I possibly could, and now I am asked to leave her! Why, it is intolerable! Who is to look after her properly at a time like this, if I do not?” He ordered healing rites for her, which dismayed her because she herself had no wish to live, but she could not very well tell him so plainly, and despite everything she was touched that he should wish her to.

  “Are you feeling a little better now?” he inquired the next morning. “I should like to talk to you, if only as I did yesterday.”

  She sent him out the message, “Perhaps I am getting worse day by day, but today, at any rate, I feel very ill. Do come in, then.”69 He was greatly moved and wondered what her condition could be, because this unaccustomed warmth was alarming. He approached and began to talk of this and that. “I feel too unwell to answer you,” she said; “perhaps when I am a little better.” Her voice was pathetically faint, and he sat there in sorrow, overcome by pity. Still, he could not stay on there forever with nothing to do, and despite his concern he returned to the City. “It only makes her worse to be living in a place like this,” he told the old woman,” and I plan to move her somewhere more suitable.” He left word for the Adept to pray earnestly as well.

  One of the Counselor's men had ingratiated himself with a young woman of the household, and the two were chatting when he happened to remark, “His Highness of War will be making no more secret trips here: he has been confined to the palace. I hear they mean to marry him to the daughter of His Excellency of the Right. Since that has been the idea all along on her side, His Excellency will hardly object, and they say it is to happen before the end of the year. His Highness is not at all pleased; he spends all his time in gallant pastimes at the palace and seems to show little sign of behaving himself as Their Majesties would like him to do. My master, on the other hand, continues to distinguish himself by being so awfully serious that people hardly know what to do with him. The way he keeps coming here surprises them a good deal, and they say that he must be rather deeply involved.”