This evening above
all others my sleeve is wet
with the dew of it,
though I have passed through many
autumns of grieving before

Meaning

This evening above all others my sleeve is wet, though I have passed through many an autumn of grieving before.

Commentary

Part One: Aoi

　In his idleness Genji thought that the Asagao princess, if anyone, would understand what he felt that day, and wrote after dark. Long as the gap had been, the correspondence had become an accepted thing, and the letter was taken in to her without objection. Written on Chinese paper the color of the sky, the poem was in a hand more careful than usual. She answered briefly.

　"Wakite" means especially, above all. "Tsuyukeshi," close to tears, is a word used again and again through this chapter. "Many an autumn of grieving before" sets this year's autumn apart from all the others. The poem is not addressed to her grief but pleads his own, and it shows a side of Genji that, even at such a time, does not let his interest in her lapse.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

This evening above all others my sleeve is wet with the dew of it, though I have passed through many autumns of grieving before

This evening above
all others my sleeve is wet
with the dew of it,
though I have passed through many
autumns of grieving before