Note 55 — Chapter III · THE MAIDEN
Arthur Waley translation
Genji is now 33.
56 In the 4th month.
57 The laurel and the hollyhock form the garlands worn by worshippers at this festival.
58 Her mourning was of dark blue wistaria-colour.
59 Her period of mourning is almost over. There is a play of words; fuji = wistaria, and fuchi = pool.
60 The presents of gay clothing which are customarily made to a person who has just emerged from a period of mourning.
61 The professors speak in a mixture of antiquated Japanese and classical Chinese the effect of which I do not attempt to reproduce.
62 See my Nō Plays, p. 15 seq.
63 In eight lines.
64 Like Chʻe Yün and Sun Kʻang, two Chinese scholars who had not money enough to buy candles (4th century A.D.).
65, 66 By Ssu-ma Chʻien, 1st century B.C., a book somewhat longer than Gibbon’s Decline and Fall; by far the most distinguished Chinese historical work.
67 The eldest daughter of Tō no Chūjō.
68 Murasaki’s father, who was anxious to place his younger daughter at Court.
69 See vol. ii, p. 86. The rhyme-words at the end of the verses were covered and the competitors had to guess them.
70 His first wife was a daughter of the Minister of the Right.
71 Akikonomu.
72 Kumoi.
73 The ex-Emperor Suzaku’s little son.
74 Using ‘major’ and ‘minor’ as translations of Yō and In. The six strings were tuned to the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 3rd, 7th, 11th, semitones of the diatonic scale.
75 ‘Some such sorrow as mine they too must know, the wild-geese that with sorrowful cry trail through the country of the clouds.’
76 A sister of Kōkiden.
77 Of Akikonomu as Empress.
78 Kumoi’s mother.
79 With Fujitsubo, his father’s concubine.
80 There is a legend which tells how certain dancing-maidens took the fancy of the gods and were snatched up to the sky.
81 Koremitsu’s daughter.
82 See vol. ii, pp. 96 and 129.
83 804–872 A.D.
84 See vol. i, p. 239 seq.
85 Allusion to the death of the old Emperor, Genji’s and Suzaku’s father.
86 The song and dance ‘Warbling of the Spring Nightingales’ are attributed to the mythical Chinese Emperor Yao, 3rd millennium B.C.
87 See above, p. 45.
88 A machi is 119 yards.
89 The points of the compass indicated by these animal designations are, successively S.W., S.E., N.E., N.W. Houses were planned with reference to Chinese astrological conceptions.
90 Used for residence during the Kamo Festival.
91 Plucked on the 5th day of the 5th month.
92 Quercus dentata.
93 Lasts for a week, centring round the autumnal equinox. The Further Shore is Nirvāna, to which Buddha carries us in the Ship of Salvation. The festival is peculiar to Japan.
94 Goddess of the autumn; here compared to Akikonomu. The secondary meaning is ‘You must be more civil to Akikonomu now that she is Empress.’