When the wind blows, first
of all the thing to be thrown
into disarray
is the spider on the dew
of reeds whose color turns now

Meaning

When the wind blows, the first thing thrown into disarray is the spider's thread on the dew of reeds already changing color.

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　Murasaki no Ue answered his poem on white paper with this one and nothing else. Brief as it was, Genji murmured to himself that her hand kept improving, and smiled over it with real tenderness. Since they wrote constantly, her writing much resembled his own, with something more graceful and womanly added.

　"Sasagani" is an old word for a spider, or a spider's thread. "The dew on low reeds" takes up his own words, keeping the etiquette of exchange. "Changing color" is grass withering, with a changeable human heart folded in. She likens herself to the frailest thing available—a thread of web on a bead of dew—and states the precariousness of her position without a word of reproach.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

When the wind blows, first of all the thing to be thrown into disarray is the spider on the dew of reeds whose color turns now

When the wind blows, first
of all the thing to be thrown
into disarray
is the spider on the dew
of reeds whose color turns now