While I try to tell
which of them the dew has made
its lodging upon,
the wind may well come blowing
over the low bamboo field

Meaning

While I am still working out which blade the dew has settled on, the wind may come sweeping across the field of low bamboo.

Commentary

Part One: Hana no En

　Impressed by her reply, Genji said that without a name he would have no way to find her, and pressed again for her identity. But dawn was breaking, there were sounds of people stirring, and he could not stay. This poem carries his urgency. In the end they parted with only their fans exchanged and no names given, and for some time afterward he could not discover who she was.

　"Where the dew lodges" is the place the dew has settled, taking up her "grasses of the field." "The field of low bamboo" figures the difficulty of picking out one woman among a whole set of sisters. "The wind may come blowing" is a fear that the wind will spoil everything—that the chance will scatter as dew does. He carries her grass imagery straight forward while conveying the practical business of learning her name, and the poem is well made as one half of an exchange.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

While I try to tell which of them the dew has made its lodging upon, the wind may well come blowing over the low bamboo field

While I try to tell
which of them the dew has made
its lodging upon,
the wind may well come blowing
over the low bamboo field