In the clear surface
of this pond, a mirror froze
over and cloudless,
not to see the face that I
used to see is a sad thing

Meaning

The pond has frozen to a clear bright mirror, and it is sad that the face I used to see is not in it.

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　Genji answered Prince Hyobu's poem with this, speaking as it came to him. The pond in the garden had frozen over without a gap. The text calls the poem rather too youthful. Omyobu then spoke a poem of her own, and Fujitsubo's removal to Sanjo, though the forms were as usual, was a bleak business.

　"Saewataru" is to freeze hard all over. "The mirror of the pond" likens the ice to a looking-glass, and since a mirror shows a face it leads into "kage," the reflected image—here the late Emperor. Loss is stated by a clear mirror with nothing to reflect: a plain enough conception, and it is worth noting that the text itself judges it too direct a way of carrying grief.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

In the clear surface of this pond, a mirror froze over and cloudless, not to see the face that I used to see is a sad thing

In the clear surface
of this pond, a mirror froze
over and cloudless,
not to see the face that I
used to see is a sad thing