Comments:
This playful chapter contrasts with the major events to occur in the next chapter and is meant to give texture to the larger narrative flow. Also indirectly related to this: the setting off of objects for comparison (in this case two women playing go) is a common way of appreciating and evaluating aesthetic value, character and so forth. This was true in the rainy night scene where various women are set beside each other in consecutive mini-narrative, and will be true frequently elsewhere in this narrative.
Story highlights:
In this brief chapter, Genji continues to pursue the wife of the Iyo Deputy (T) / the lady, etc. (S) (空蝉, Utsusemi) but instead mistakenly finds himself at the side of a different woman since Utsusemi has slipped out of the room ahead of him, in a panic. He had seen this woman, sister of the Governor of Kii (T) / the lady from the west wing (T&S) (軒端荻, Nokiba no Ogi), earlier in the day playing go with Utsusemi and had found her somewhat attractive. Too embarrassed to admit his error, and fundamentally not against the idea, he sleeps with this other woman.
Reading notes:
It seems to me that Murasaki the writer, or the narrative voice of The Tale of Genji in any event, shows very little sympathy for the boy's emotions in the opening paragraph of this chapter, and elsewhere.
The peeping scene on Tyler 49 / Seidensticker 50: Secretly stealing a glimpse of a beautiful woman through a gap in a fence or other obstruction is a classic motif in Heian period amorous literature and should be considered erotic. This type of peeping was called "seeing through a gap in the fence" (noun: 垣間見, kaimami; verb: 垣間見る, kaimamiru -- there is sound change [音便, onbin] to break kaki-ma down to kaima). Aristocratic status was defined in part by inaccessibility and women tried not to be seen at inopportune times though the literature is full of failures to do so.
Comparing Tyler and Seidensticker translations: It can be difficult to determine to whom to attribute character traits given in a phrase because of vague grammatical structure. As with the character descriptions mentioned earlier, there is considerable room for interpretation when translation. When Genji finds that he is becoming interested in Nokiba no Ogi, though he has made a special effort to travel to Utsusemi's house because he wanted to see her, he makes this judgment after describing this charming but a bit too inelegant other woman: "Her partner had liveliness and charm, though, and the growing abandon of her gay laughter had a vivid appeal that made her delightful in her way. Yes, Genji thought, I am a rascal, but with his roving eye he say in her one more woman whom he would not soon forget." (Tyler 49) "The latter, very engaging indeed, laughed ever more happily. There was no denying the bright gaiety, and in her way she was interesting enough. A shallow, superficial thing, no doubt, but to his less than pure heart she seemed a prize not to be flung away." (Seidensticker 51). Tyler takes a fragment of internal dialogue "while thinking 'superficial' his not-serious heart was certain not to leave off thinking of this one [woman] as well" (あはつけしとは思しながら、まめならぬ御心はこれもえ思しほつまじかりけり。) and takes is as Genji reflecting on his personality ("rascal") while Seidensticker takes the phrase to be a further estimate of the girl's personality ("shallow, superficial"). This internality of Genji and a sense that he is a bit in the wrong when the topic is morality is fairly consistent in Tyler. "Not-serious heart" (まめならぬ御心) is translated as "roving eye" by Tyler and "less than pure heart" by Seidensticker. Here both translate the negativity that is in the original but the nuances are slightly different. These examples are given side-by-side to suggest that depending how much you want to make of the details of language there is not a great deal of difference in approach between these two translators, or, there is.
I find it uncomplimentary, but alas perhaps accurate, for Murasaki the writer to suggest that a man is as ready to switch the object of his passion as Genji is when he discovers he is about to bed with not only the wrong woman but with someone whom he does not even know. However, I do think that Murasaki is trying to play up Genji's youthful immoderation to help show character development as he grows older.
Tyler 52 / Seidensticker 55, concerning Genji's changing feelings towards the boy: Genji has taken the Kogimi (the brother of Utsusemi) into his employ and he is suggesting that it might be difficult to continue this in a long-term sort of way if Genji continues to have a miserable relationship with the boy's sister Utsusemi. In my opinion this is more reasonable a comment by Genji, a political reality, than the somewhat spiteful or fickle sense that comes through in the translations.
As Seidensticker 56 notes, the final poem in this chapter is by Ise (伊勢, b. 874?, d. after 938?). This is already the second reference to her (see Chapter 01 Kiritsubo where the Kiritsubo emperor is grieving the loss of his lady by reading sad poems written in Chinese and Japanese). Ise is one of the great early women poets of Japan and her collected poems, with its extended prose components in its earlier portions, is considered an early model for the interesting court memoirs that Heian and later women would write.
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