This is now the end—
the parting road is so sad;
the way I would go,
if I could choose, is the road
of life, of living onward

Meaning

The road of parting I must take, knowing this is the end, is so full of sorrow—and the road I truly wish to take is the road of staying alive.

Commentary

Part One: Kiritsubo

　The Kiritsubo Consort, who held the Emperor's love entirely to herself, fell ill under the weight of jealousy and strain around her, and at last had to withdraw to her family home. The Emperor took her hand, unwilling to let her go, but she was already barely breathing, and left this poem in place of words. Having spoken it, she left the palace and died that same night. The Emperor sank into grief, and this parting becomes the point from which the whole of The Tale of Genji begins to move.

　"Kagiri tote" means "thinking this is the end," showing that the dying consort knows her life is finishing. In "ikamahoshiki" two senses are laid over each other—"the road I wish to go" and "the life I wish to live"—so that a single word carries her wish to take the road of life rather than the road of death. She neither blames the Emperor nor calls out to him, leaving only her wish to have lived on at his side, a restrained expression that has made this the best known poem of the Kiritsubo chapter.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

This is now the end— the parting road is so sad; the way I would go, if I could choose, is the road of life, of living onward

This is now the end—
the parting road is so sad;
the way I would go,
if I could choose, is the road
of life, of living onward