Whether at the waves
of the Suzuka's shallows
my sleeves wet or not,
who will there be to send me
a thought as far as Ise

Meaning

Wet or not at the many shallows of the Suzuka, who is there who will send a thought after me as far as Ise?

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　From beyond the Osaka barrier Miyasudokoro sent this in reply. It was written briefly and plainly, but the hand had grace and breeding. Genji found it wanting: he wished a word of more feeling had been added. In the mist of the following daybreak he murmured another poem to himself.

　"Wet or not" takes up his "will your sleeves not be wet." "Who will send a thought" is a rhetorical question—she does not believe anyone truly cares—so the poem turns ironic. She takes over every term he had given her and uses them to say she does not trust his concern, which shows that even after the night at the Shrine the distance between them has not closed.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

I would not call up those old days again today, and hold myself back, and yet within my own heart there is a sadness in it
Though you shake me off and go on your way today, at the Suzuka's eighty shallows, will your sleeves not be wet with the water
I would gaze after the way that she has gone now— so this autumn, mists, do not stand between me and the hill of Osaka there
That pine we relied on for the breadth of its shade— has it withered then? Here at year's end the lower leaves are going, one by one

Whether at the waves of the Suzuka's shallows my sleeves wet or not, who will there be to send me a thought as far as Ise

Whether at the waves
of the Suzuka's shallows
my sleeves wet or not,
who will there be to send me
a thought as far as Ise