Could it fall short of
the grief of that spring when I
went out from the town—
this autumn in which I part
from a shore grown old with years

Meaning

Could it fall short of the grief of that spring when I left the capital—this autumn, parting from a shore grown old with years?

Commentary

Part One: Akashi

　Genji answered the novice's poem with this one, saying first that there were ties he could not forget and that his real intent would be understood in time, and that what he found hard was leaving this house; then he wiped his eyes. The old man lost his composure entirely and swayed whether standing or sitting. Afterward the mother and the nurse added their grief to his, and he fell into the garden stream and hurt his back.

　"The spring I left the capital" is the departure for Suma. "The shore grown old with years" plays the long years lived by this bay against the age of the novice himself. "The autumn of parting" is the present. Spring's going down and autumn's return are set as a pair, closing the whole exile of the two chapters within one poem, and answering the corresponding poem in the Suma chapter.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Could it fall short of the grief of that spring when I went out from the town— this autumn in which I part from a shore grown old with years

Could it fall short of
the grief of that spring when I
went out from the town—
this autumn in which I part
from a shore grown old with years