A parting at dawn
is always a thing of dew,
but this—here is one
such as the world has not known,
and such an autumn sky too

Meaning

A parting at daybreak is always a thing of dew; but this is an autumn sky such as the world has never known.

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　Talking through the night, they watched the sky slowly lighten. They had said everything there was to say, and still what stood between them did not lift. Unable to go, holding her hand, Genji spoke this poem. She answered, and he went home through the full daylight, wet with dew. That night at the Shrine in the Fields was the last time the two of them met.

　"A parting at dawn" is the leave-taking of lovers at daybreak, always understood to come with tears. "Tsuyukeshi," close to tears, doubles with the dew of the hour. "Such as the world has not known" sets this one occasion apart while keeping to the conventional form. One word of excess inside a set pattern is enough to say that this is a parting after which there will be no meeting.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

A parting at dawn is always a thing of dew, but this—here is one such as the world has not known, and such an autumn sky too

A parting at dawn
is always a thing of dew,
but this—here is one
such as the world has not known,
and such an autumn sky too