いづれの御時にか、女御にょうご、更衣かういあまたさぶらひたまひけるなかに、いとやむごとなき際きはにはあらぬが、すぐれて時めきたまふありけり。

It was a certain reign — among the many Consorts and Intimates who served, there was one who was not particularly high ranking, and thrived exceedingly.

語釈

The overall grammar of the sentence is a typical use of so-called 同格構文. Both いとやむごとなき際にはあらぬ and すぐれて時めきたまふ are noun phrases (ending with RT verbs), linked by が, that both describe the same thing.

いづれの御時にか

A verb like ありけむ is omitted here. This に is the RY of the copula, resulting from the so-called “clefted copula” — that is, なる -> にある. The reading of 御 has been a point of difficulty for some time. See the Keigo page for more details.

女御にょうご更衣かうい

Multiple subjects for a single verb (さぶらふ here) can be listed with no particle between them. The translations “Consort” and “Intimate” are from Tyler. Consorts are the highest ranking of the Emperor’s women (other than the Empress), and the Intimates rank below the Consorts. In Murasaki Shikibu’s time, there had been no Intimates for two reigns, and the most notable Emperor with “many” Intimates was Emperor Daigo.

さぶらひ

The word さぶらふ can literally mean “serve” but it can also just be a polite “be” verb; either meaning works here since the women are literally serving the Emperor.

いと

This word means “very,” but paired with a negative verb as in this case, it means “not particularly…”

あらぬが

The が particle in the Genji does not mean “but.” There are two ways of interpreting it here: (1) It is a subject marker, making the sentence XがY, showing that NP X is also NP Y. (2) It is a conjunction meaning “and,” connecting two clauses. The difference between the two is small and is difficult to represent in an English translation.

時めき

Note that the subject of this verb is Kiritsubo, not the Emperor. Although it means that Kiritsubo was loved by the Emperor, this meaning is expressed in a roundabout way that makes Kiritsubo the subject of 時めき. The Koujien defines the word as よい時機にあって栄える; the most obvious way for a Consort or Intimate to “thrive” is to receive the Emperor’s love. The word occurs earlier in the 蜻蛉日記, also in reference to women in the Emperor’s service: after Emperor Murakami’s death, the author wonders about the sadness of his women, and refers to them using the phrase 時めき給へる人々.

評

The opening sentence introduces the initial situation: contemporary readers would have detected the possibility for an interesting romance, while also realizing the danger involved in the Emperor’s inappropriate love of this woman who is “not particularly high ranking.” The initial group of readers were the gentlewomen in the service of Emperor Ichijō, and the memory of the political struggles surrounding Teishi and Shoushi would still be fresh in their minds.

The opening sentences of famous works are often well-known in their own right, and this sentence is no exception. It shares some similarities with the monogatari that came before it. For instance:

今は昔、竹取の翁といふ者ありけり。
A long time ago, there was an old bamboo cutter. （竹取物語）

昔、男、初冠して、奈良の京、春日の里にしるましして、狩りにいにけり。
Long ago there was a man who had his capping ceremony and then went to the village of Kasuga near the Nara Capital to hunt. （伊勢物語）

昔、式部大輔左大弁かけて、藤原の王ありけり。
Long ago （宇津保物語）

今は昔、中納言なる人の、女あまたもたまへるおはしき。
Long ago, a certain Middle Counselor had many daughters. （落窪物語）

On the one hand, the Genji opening has the same construction: a time, followed by the introduction of a character. On the other hand, the four examples above all begin with 昔 or 今は昔, setting the stories (at least ostensibly) in the distant past. In contrast, the Genji opening suggests a specific (although unknown) time period for the story. There are clues within the story to suggest that the author had in mind the reign of Emperor Daigo (897-930), a point that was mentioned very early in the history of Genji reception. Two inspirations for the opening have been suggested. The Kagerō Diary has a vague, roundabout opening:

Thus the time has passed and there is one in the world who has lived such a vain existence, catching on to neither this nor that (trans. Sonja Arntzen, 57).

The Kagerō Diary is thought to have been an influence on Murasaki Shikibu, particularly its blending of prose and poetry, and the stream of consciousness and psychological analysis. In this aspect the Kagerō Diary seems to anticipate the Genji more so than the other tales that preceded it.

A second similarity that has been pointed out since the Kakaishō (13th c.) is with the Poetry Collection of Lady Ise (伊勢集). Lady Ise was an active poet in the late 9th century, and is the best represented female poet in the first three imperial poetry collections (see chapter 4 of Okada 1991). Her name is mentioned alongside Ki no Tsurayuki twice in the Genji — a rare appearance of a named literary figure in the story. In the “Kiritsubo” chapter itself, the Emperor looks at paintings of the Song of Neverending Sorrow with poems from Lady Ise on it. The opening of the poetry collections reads as follows in the base text for the 伊勢集全釈:

寛平みかどの御時、大御息所ときこえける御つぼねに、大和に親ある人さぶらひけり。
In the court of the Kampyō Emperor [Uda, 887-897], a woman whose parents were from Yamato served in the chambers of the Great Haven [Fujiwara no Onshi].

However, the 全釈 notes that some other manuscripts read いづれの御時にかありけむ (“This was in a certain reign”) instead of 寛平みかどの御時. The editors of the 全釈 (Sekine and Yamashita) suggest that this was the original form of the text, which later was altered to include the actual Emperor’s name. Okada notes that other scholars have suggested the reverse, that this textual variant was made in imitation of the Genji’s opening. As for why the time period is concealed, some pre-modern commentators suggested links to Chinese philosophical works or Buddhist thought. Motoori Norinaga said the following, which seems to mirror modern opinion:

This tale is all a constructed tale (作物語); it is like the “tales of old” (昔話) of today. This is why it says “Long ago, in a certain reign,” and says these things happened. These words apply to the entire story. The Poetry Collection of Ise also conceals the emperor’s name, and it is told in the style of a tale of old. The meaning is the same.