These years I waited
and no sign came of it—my
house you pass beside
only because the flowers
gave you occasion to come

Meaning

All these years I waited and nothing came of it; do you pass by my house only because the flowers gave you the occasion?

Commentary

Part One: Yomogiu

　Suetsumuhana answered his poem with this one. The quiet stir of her movement and the scent of her sleeves made Genji think she had grown into herself since the old days. As the moon went down its light came in freely, for there was no gallery or eave left to block it, and he could see the furnishings unchanged from years before. That she had passed all this time in the same state moved him deeply. Afterward he had the mugwort cleared and the fencing repaired, and two years later moved her to the eastern wing of the Nijo estate.

　"Toshi o hete" is over the passing years. "Matsu" takes up his own pun on pine and waiting. "Shirushi naki" is to no purpose, turning his word for a sign back on him. "Occasion of the flowers" asks whether he stopped only because the wisteria drew him. She takes over every word he used and reverses the sense alone—an unusually direct reproach from this woman.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

These years I waited and no sign came of it—my house you pass beside only because the flowers gave you occasion to come

These years I waited
and no sign came of it—my
house you pass beside
only because the flowers
gave you occasion to come