In the dusk I saw
faintly the color of one
flower, and this morn
the mist that rises makes it
hard for me to rise and go

Meaning

Having glimpsed that flower's color faintly in the dusk, I find this morning that the rising mist makes it hard to set out.

Commentary

Part One: Wakamurasaki

　Before leaving the hills, Genji sent this poem to the nun through the bishop. Drawing on the glimpse of the girl the evening before, he says he cannot bear simply to go. His offer to take the child had already been turned down, but he had not given it up. The nun answered this poem too, deflecting him gently.

　"Yumagure" is the hour of dusk, when he looked in over the fence. "The color of the flower" figures the girl's beauty and joins with the mountain-cherry imagery. "The mist rising" is the haze of spring, and "rising" also plays against setting out, so that the mist is what keeps him from leaving. Tying scene and feeling with a single double-sense word is the classic shape of a poem in exchange.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

In the dusk I saw faintly the color of one flower, and this morn the mist that rises makes it hard for me to rise and go

In the dusk I saw
faintly the color of one
flower, and this morn
the mist that rises makes it
hard for me to rise and go