There is surely no
one who would stand and be wet
at this eastern hut,
and how tiresomely the rain
comes dripping down on it here

Meaning

Surely no one would stop and get wet at this eastern hut—and yet how wretchedly the rain keeps dripping down on it.

Commentary

Part One: Momiji no Ga

　Unable to give up her feeling for Genji, the lady let fall reproachful words whenever she could. One day he stopped where she was playing her lute near the Unmeiden, and they spoke together. It was then that she lamented in this poem. Genji found so open an appeal hard to bear, and thought it no business of his alone to listen to an old woman's complaints. That night, To no Chujo, guessing what was afoot, forced his way in on them.

　The "eastern hut" is a plain house roofed down on all four sides, and the poem draws on the words of the saibara song of that name. Since that song is a woman's, waiting for a man to come, she lays her own visitorless state over it. "Ame sosoki" is the dripping from the eaves, with tears folded in. She quotes older song accurately, and yet what she says is an open plea unbecoming to her years—and the gap between the two is where the comedy of the scene lies.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

There is surely no one who would stand and be wet at this eastern hut, and how tiresomely the rain comes dripping down on it here

There is surely no
one who would stand and be wet
at this eastern hut,
and how tiresomely the rain
comes dripping down on it here