For whose sake was it
that I went round this wretched
world by sea and hill,
a body that floats and sinks
in tears that will not leave off

Meaning

For whose sake did I wander this wretched world by sea and hill, a body rising and sinking in tears that never end?

Commentary

Part One: Miotsukushi

　Genji answered her poem with this one: it was all for her sake, and if he takes care not to be blamed over trifles, that too is for one person only. He drew a koto over and pressed her to play, but having just heard how well the other woman played she would not touch it. He found her stubbornness the more attractive for it.

　"Tare ni yori" asks for whose sake. "Yo o umi" plays finding the world hard to bear against the sea, and leads into "sea and hill." "Yukimeguri" is wandering—the exile at Suma and Akashi. "Ukishizumu" is rising and sinking, belonging to the sea. It is the same pun the novice used at Akashi, and the vocabulary of the shore has now been carried into a conversation indoors in the capital.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

For whose sake was it that I went round this wretched world by sea and hill, a body that floats and sinks in tears that will not leave off

For whose sake was it
that I went round this wretched
world by sea and hill,
a body that floats and sinks
in tears that will not leave off