Wondering whether
it might resemble the smoke
that burned at Toribe,
I go to see the shore where
the fisherfolk burn their salt

Meaning

Wondering if it might be like the smoke that rose at Toribe, I go to look at the shore where the fisherfolk burn their salt.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　With his affair with Oborozukiyo discovered and the pressure closing in, Genji resolved to withdraw to Suma of his own accord, so that no blame should fall on the Heir Apparent. Two or three days before leaving he went under cover of dark to the Minister of the Left's house and passed a night among rooms still full of the dead Aoi no Ue. As he was leaving at dawn, a message came from Omiya through Saisho no Kimi, and this poem was murmured in reply. She answered with one of her own.

　Toribe is the burial ground where Aoi no Ue was cremated. "The shore where the fisherfolk burn salt" is the coast at Suma, and its smoke is laid over the smoke of the pyre. The journey out of the capital is recast as a journey to seek a dead wife's smoke, so that exile and bereavement meet in one image. As the first poem of the chapter it also opens the theme of salt-burning smoke that runs through it.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Wondering whether it might resemble the smoke that burned at Toribe, I go to see the shore where the fisherfolk burn their salt

Wondering whether
it might resemble the smoke
that burned at Toribe,
I go to see the shore where
the fisherfolk burn their salt