Was it sinking down
into that river of tears
with no shoal to meet,
that made the beginning of
the channel I drift along

Meaning

Was it my sinking into that river of tears, where no shallows brought us together, that began the channel down which I am carried now?

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　While settling his affairs, Genji contrived to send a letter to Oborozukiyo. It was this affair that had brought him to exile, and though he knew she had reason not to write, he could not keep the reproach out of it. This poem went with that letter. She was deeply shaken and answered through tears she could not hold back.

　"Ause" is a lovers' meeting, and "se," a shoal, works within the river imagery. "The river of tears" is an old conventional figure. "Mio" is the channel where water runs, a word also used for its sound suggesting the ruin of a self. Here it is his own drifting condition told as a current. The chain from a lover's tears to an actual sentence of exile is built entirely out of words associated with water.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Was it sinking down into that river of tears with no shoal to meet, that made the beginning of the channel I drift along

Was it sinking down
into that river of tears
with no shoal to meet,
that made the beginning of
the channel I drift along