The bubble afloat
on the river of tears will
surely vanish soon,
not waiting for the shallows
that come after the current

Meaning

The bubble on this river of tears will surely vanish, without waiting for the shallows that lie downstream.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　Oborozukiyo answered his poem with this one. She will be gone, she says, before any day of meeting comes—despair stated plainly. The hand, written in disorder through her weeping, was fine all the same. Genji thought of asking to see her once more, but remembering what the affair had already cost he did not press it.

　"River of tears" and "shoal" both take up his own words, keeping the etiquette of exchange. "Minawa" is a bubble on water, long used for a life that will not last. "The shallows further down" plays the course of the river against a later meeting. Where he asked about the past that brought them here, she denies the future, and the two poems divide the tense between them.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The bubble afloat on the river of tears will surely vanish soon, not waiting for the shallows that come after the current

The bubble afloat
on the river of tears will
surely vanish soon,
not waiting for the shallows
that come after the current