As the days and months went by the child grew more and more like Genji. The new Empress was greatly distressed, but no one else seemed to notice the resemblance. He was not of course so handsome; how indeed should he have been? But both were beautiful, and the world was content to accept their beauty without troubling to compare them, just as it accepts both moon and sun as lovely occupants of the sky.
[1] They were not allowed to leave the palace.
[2] The bird that sings in Paradise.
[4] In allusion to a boy-prince of seven years old whom the jealous gods carried off to the sky. See the Ōkagami.
[5] Those who stand in a circle round the dancers while the latter change their clothes.
[6] Reading ‘Sadaijin,’ not ‘Sadaishō.’
[7] Another illegitimate son of the Emperor; Genji’s step-brother.
[8] Fujitsubo’s brother; Murasaki’s father.
[9] Another name for the nadeshiko, ‘Child-of-my-heart,’ see p. [58].