Since I went forth,
even the traces I left
have not yet altered—
whose passing path, I wonder,
has it now come to be?

Meaning

Even the traces from when I left you have surely not yet changed, and yet, I wonder whose passing path it has now become.

Commentary

Episode Forty-Two: "Since I went forth"

A certain man, though he knew that a woman was fond of forming ties with many men, spoke with her and became intimate with her.
He feared her inconstancy and so went to her often, yet he could not bring himself to cease visiting her despite knowing her nature.
After being unable to go to her for two or three days, he sent her this poem.

Such a woman is described as one given to love. Though charming and capable of troubling men, such fondness for many attachments was not regarded as a virtue.
The man, drawn to her yet displeased and jealous of her inconstancy, gives voice in this poem to feelings he cannot wholly reconcile.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

If she should go forth, who then would find parting hard? but beyond all past, today’s grief surpasses all— how sorrowful this day is.
When purple’s hue is deep in its season, so it seems to me— all the grasses of the fields have not withered away.
Cuckoo—since there are so many villages where you go on singing, still, though I think of you, I cannot hold you dear.
In name alone stands the field-warden of death— this very morning it cries, for they have sung of many huts for it.

Since I went forth, even the traces I left have not yet altered— whose passing path, I wonder, has it now come to be?

Since I went forth,
even the traces I left
have not yet altered—
whose passing path, I wonder,
has it now come to be?