This travelling robe
I have cut and layered while
the waves came shoreward—
will you find it wet with brine
and turn from it in dislike?

Meaning

This travelling robe I cut and layered as the waves came in—will you find it damp with brine and turn from it?

Commentary

Part One: Akashi

　The novice had the day's preparations made splendidly, with fresh travelling clothes for everyone down to the lowest servant. On the hunting robe Genji was to wear that day, Akashi no Kimi had written this poem, and he found it in the midst of the bustle. He answered and exchanged the robe for one he had been wearing himself.

　"Yoru nami ni" is a preface leading to "tatsu." "Tatsu" plays the rising of a wave against the cutting of cloth. "Tabigoromo" is the travelling robe, taking up the word Genji had used earlier in the chapter. "Shiodokeshi" is damp with brine, standing for damp with tears. "Itou" is to find distasteful. Tears are worked into the concrete act of sewing a garment, and the gift itself becomes the vessel of the poem.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

This travelling robe I have cut and layered while the waves came shoreward— will you find it wet with brine and turn from it in dislike?

This travelling robe
I have cut and layered while
the waves came shoreward—
will you find it wet with brine
and turn from it in dislike?