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

Meaning

Has the pine we trusted for its broad shade withered away? Its lower leaves are scattering, here at the end of the year.

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　In the tenth month the Retired Emperor Kiritsubo's illness grew grave, and on the first of the eleventh he died. When the forty-nine days had passed the consorts left the palace one after another, and Fujitsubo moved to the Sanjo residence. On the twentieth of the twelfth month, a windy day with snow blowing, Prince Hyobu, come to escort her, saw the lower branches of the five-needled pine in the garden gone brown and spoke this poem. It moved Genji deeply, and he answered.

　"For the breadth of its shade" is the shelter a protector gives. The pine is the late Emperor, and its death is his. "The lower leaves scattering" are the people now left without a patron and dispersing. One withered pine in front of them carries both the death and the family's prospects; the text itself calls the poem nothing much, and the moment gives it its force.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

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

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