The one who remains
and the one who has vanished
are one dew-like world,
and to keep reserve in it
is a frail thing, is it not

Meaning

The one who stays and the one who has gone belong to the same world of dew; to keep any reserve in it seems a frail thing indeed.

Commentary

Part One: Aoi

　Genji answered her condolence on paper of a purplish grey. He apologizes for the long silence and asks that the reserve between them be set aside. But Miyasudokoro, with her own guilt to sharpen her, read exactly what was hinted at in the letter, and suffered the more for it. From this point their relation cooled past recovery.

　"The one who stays" is himself; "the one who has vanished" is Aoi no Ue. "A world of dew" is the standard figure for this transient life, taking up her "wet with dew." "Kokoro oku" is to hold something back, to keep a reserve. Cast as a wise acceptance that living and dead are alike dew, the poem in fact lets his suspicion show, and she reads that doubleness precisely. Under the forms of condolence and reply, two people are testing each other's real minds.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The one who remains and the one who has vanished are one dew-like world, and to keep reserve in it is a frail thing, is it not

The one who remains
and the one who has vanished
are one dew-like world,
and to keep reserve in it
is a frail thing, is it not