Think, from that Suma
shore where they say the sleeves drip
brine, of the woman
of Ise who cuts the weed
and gathers her bitterness

Meaning

From that shore of Suma where they say the sleeves drip brine, think of the woman of Ise cutting weed and bitterness together.

Commentary

Part One: Suma

　In the confusion of that troubled season it had gone unmentioned, but Genji had sent a messenger to Rokujo no Miyasudokoro in Ise as well. She sent someone all that way in return, with a letter of real feeling. The wording and the hand were finer than most and showed deep cultivation. This poem was part of it.

　"Ukime" is a seaweed whose name also means bitter experience. "The fisherwoman of the Ise shore" is herself. "Moshio taru" is being wet with brine while burning seaweed for salt, played against being wet with tears, and stands for Genji at Suma. Each addresses the other as a dweller by the sea, and the epistolary pattern of this chapter—binding two distant places in one vocabulary of the shore—holds here as well.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Think, from that Suma shore where they say the sleeves drip brine, of the woman of Ise who cuts the weed and gathers her bitterness

Think, from that Suma
shore where they say the sleeves drip
brine, of the woman
of Ise who cuts the weed
and gathers her bitterness