Weary of the world,
I have become one soaked through
with brine these many
years on this shore—and even
so I cannot leave this bank

Meaning

Weary of the world, I have become one soaked in brine these many years on this shore, and still I cannot get free of this bank.

Commentary

Part One: Akashi

　The novice said how sorry he was that he could not accompany the party, screwing up his face to weep as he took his leave. The darkness in a parent's heart would only confuse him further, he said, so let him at least go as far as the provincial border; and he hinted that Genji might remember his daughter now and then. This poem went with those words, and Genji answered.

　"Yo o umi ni" is finding the world hard to bear, with the word for sea inside it. "Kokora" is for many years, or a great deal. "Shiojimu" is being soaked in brine and also growing used to a place over long habitation. "This bank" is the shore at Akashi and also the near shore of Buddhist teaching, the world of attachment. A man under vows who cannot free himself from love of his daughter is drawn through the overlap of religious and coastal vocabulary.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Weary of the world, I have become one soaked through with brine these many years on this shore—and even so I cannot leave this bank

Weary of the world,
I have become one soaked through
with brine these many
years on this shore—and even
so I cannot leave this bank