You grieve having seen,
and she who has not seen him—
how must she grieve too?
Is this, then, the very dark
they say a parent wanders

Meaning

If seeing brings such grief, how much must the one who cannot see him suffer? Is this the darkness people speak of, that a parent wanders in?

Commentary

Part One: Momiji no Ga

　Omyobu, who served close to Fujitsubo, answered Genji's poem with this one. Having gone between the two of them, she saw the suffering on both sides at once and could take neither part without pain. She did not go on to arrange the meeting, and Genji had to withdraw with his longing unrelieved.

　"Grief even in seeing" points to Fujitsubo, who can look at the child; "not seeing" points to Genji, who cannot. "The dark that people wander in" draws on an old poetic way of speaking of the darkness in a parent's heart, and she takes both their sufferings as forms of that darkness. Setting the feelings of both parties side by side in a single poem is exactly what her position as go-between requires.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

You grieve having seen, and she who has not seen him— how must she grieve too? Is this, then, the very dark they say a parent wanders

You grieve having seen,
and she who has not seen him—
how must she grieve too?
Is this, then, the very dark
they say a parent wanders