Stroking her alone,
my sleeve has not the breadth for
what it must cover;
I wait for a shade that would
spread wide enough to cover

Meaning

Raising her by myself, my sleeve is too narrow to cover her; I wait for a shade broad enough to cover her wholly.

Commentary

Part One: Miotsukushi

　Akashi no Kimi answered his poem with this one. The nurse's party had arrived, the novice bowed toward the capital in his joy, and she herself, sunk in brooding for months, recovered enough to lift her head from her pillow. Since the messenger was in haste she set down a few of her thoughts and sent this. From then on the child was strangely much in Genji's mind.

　"Nazuru" takes up his own word, keeping the etiquette of exchange. "My sleeve has no breadth" is a modest way of naming her own small means. "A shade wide enough to cover" is his protection. Against the vast span of his heavenly maiden and her rock she sets the narrow measure of her own sleeve, and her sense of the distance in rank is at work here as well.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Stroking her alone, my sleeve has not the breadth for what it must cover; I wait for a shade that would spread wide enough to cover

Stroking her alone,
my sleeve has not the breadth for
what it must cover;
I wait for a shade that would
spread wide enough to cover