Is this indeed
the robe of feathers
of a heavenly maid?
No wonder it was worn
by one such as you.

Meaning

Is this indeed the feathered robe of a heavenly maiden? No wonder it was worn by one such as you.

Commentary

Episode Sixteen: "Folding the fingers"

Ki no Aritsune, who had served three reigns, lost in political strife and fell into poverty, forced to live in hardship.
Accustomed to an elegant life, he knew little of the world’s common ways and suffered greatly.
At last, even the wife who had long shared his life became a nun and left him.

This poem is Aritsune’s reply to the poem sent by his friend together with robes and bedding for a nun, which had said, "If the years alone, saying ten, have passed four times, how many times in that while has she relied upon you and come to you?"

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

Folding my fingers, counting the times we met— when I say ten, ten and ten and ten and ten have already passed.
If the years alone, saying ten, have passed four times, how many times has she relied on you, coming to you thus?
Has autumn come, or is it the dew— so I wonder, for what falls in truth is but my tears.
They call it faithless, by name they so proclaim it— cherry blossoms; yet they have waited for one who comes but rarely in the year.

Is this indeed the robe of feathers of a heavenly maid? No wonder it was worn by one such as you.

Is this indeed
the robe of feathers
of a heavenly maid?
No wonder it was worn
by one such as you.