Lavender

Chapter 5. Lavender 若紫

Genji 18 years old

Lavender 若紫: Gengi’s memento to remind him of Fujitsubo and his mother. She is a daughter of Fujitsubo’s older brother, Price Hyobu.

“Genji thought of the little girl and how he would like to see her grown into a woman” (Genji 97).

Genji:
Since first the wanderer glimpsed the fresh young grasses
His sleeves have known no respite from the dew (Genji 91).
(初草の若葉の上を見つるより旅寝の袖も露ぞかはかぬ)
初草: the grass that is beginning to grow = Lavender 若紫
露: a dew, tears

“A man must be always on his guard, and jealousy can have the most unwelcome consequences. But Murasaki was htre perfect companion, a toy fr him to play with” (Genji 111).

Fujitsubo 藤壷: From this chapter, Genji and Fujitsubo start to be afraid of the burden of sin they made.
She is unhappy.

Fujitsubo:
Were I to disappear in the last of dreams
Would yet my name live on in infamy?
(世語りに人や伝へむたぐひなく　　憂き身を覚めぬ夢になしても)

*Murasaki, a gromwell from the roots of which a lavender dye is extracted. Lavender, in general the color of affinity or intimacy, suggests more specifically the fuji of Fujitsubo (Genji 102).

miho