If, even parted,
at least the reflected face
were to stay behind,
then I might look in the glass
and take some comfort from it

Meaning

If even the reflection would stay behind after we part, then I might look in the mirror and be comforted.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　Murasaki no Ue answered his poem with this one. A reflection cannot stay in a mirror, she says gently, so it is no comfort at all. Seeing her slip behind a pillar to hide her tears, Genji thought again that of all the women he had known there was no one like her. Afterward he went to take his leave at the Hanachirusato house.

　"If at least the reflection would stay" takes up his own "kage" and returns it, as the exchange required. "Mono naraba" is a conditional that assumes the thing will not happen. "I might be comforted" is a contrary-to-fact wish. She takes the figure he offered as consolation and returns it as an impossible condition—consistent, through all these chapters, with a woman who does not simply believe what Genji says.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

If, even parted, at least the reflected face were to stay behind, then I might look in the glass and take some comfort from it

If, even parted,
at least the reflected face
were to stay behind,
then I might look in the glass
and take some comfort from it