On the summer pink,
where the sleeve that brushes dust
is wet with its dew,
autumn has come now as well,
adding the storm wind to it

Meaning

On this summer pink, where even the sleeve that brushes off the dust is wet with dew, autumn has come and brought the storm wind with it.

Commentary

Part One: Hahakigi

　To his reply the woman answered with this poem. She had already met with threats from the principal wife's household, and speaks of having nowhere to turn; yet, as To no Chujo tells it, she would show tears and then put them aside, never voicing reproach outright. After this poem she took the little girl and disappeared, and his story ends with them still unaccounted for.

　"Summer pink" takes up the word from his poem and now means herself, carrying the exchange on unbroken. "Tsuyukeki" is to be wet with tears; the storm stands for the pressure from the wife's household; and "aki," autumn, holds "aki," to tire of someone, laying her fear of his changing heart beneath the season. She piles up these double meanings and still never raises her voice, setting out her situation as no more than a turn of the season, and in that her character comes through clearly.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

On the summer pink, where the sleeve that brushes dust is wet with its dew, autumn has come now as well, adding the storm wind to it

On the summer pink,
where the sleeve that brushes dust
is wet with its dew,
autumn has come now as well,
adding the storm wind to it