Not knowing the heart
of the ridge line it moves toward,
the moon goes onward—
and up in the empty sky
will its light not fade and end

Meaning

The moon travels on without knowing the heart of the ridge it moves toward—may its light not fade away up there in the empty sky?

Commentary

Part One: Yugao

　On the road at dawn, the woman answered Genji's poem with this one. Not told where she was being taken, she entrusts her unease to a moon moving toward the ridge that will swallow it. He was touched by her helplessness, but her foreboding proved right: that night, at the deserted mansion, a spirit came upon her and she died.

　"The ridge line" is the mountain edge where the moon sets, standing here for Genji, while the "moon" is herself. "Uwa no sora" holds both the high sky and a mind that cannot settle. Her position—following someone she cannot fully trust—is laid directly onto the natural relation of moon and mountain, and given what follows at once, the poem comes to sound very nearly like a farewell to life.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Not knowing the heart of the ridge line it moves toward, the moon goes onward— and up in the empty sky will its light not fade and end

Not knowing the heart
of the ridge line it moves toward,
the moon goes onward—
and up in the empty sky
will its light not fade and end