For no cause at all
you have kept a wall between,
night piling on night,
and yet the robes of those nights
had grown familiar to us

Meaning

For no reason at all a wall has stood between us, night after night, though the robes of those nights had long grown familiar.

Commentary

Part One: Aoi

　Back at the Nijo residence, Genji found himself feeling something new before a Murasaki no Ue who had grown up entirely. Passing the days at go and at word games, he could bear it no longer, and one morning she alone did not rise. He slipped the inkstone box inside the curtains and went out, and in it was a folded note with this poem. Reading it she was appalled, and for some time afterward would not be easy with him.

　"Ayanaku mo" means without reason, to no purpose. "The robes of the night" are the covers of a bed, standing for sleeping together. "Kept a wall between" is regret at having held back, that is, at having lain beside her all this while without acting. Nothing in it allows for what she might be ready for, and that this exchange has no reply says everything about the shock she received.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

For no cause at all you have kept a wall between, night piling on night, and yet the robes of those nights had grown familiar to us

For no cause at all
you have kept a wall between,
night piling on night,
and yet the robes of those nights
had grown familiar to us