To the eye it may
have grown worn, grown old with shore
and years—but shall we
sink the name of the fisher
of Ise, aged as it is?

Meaning

To the eye it may have grown worn and old with years; but shall we sink the name of the fisher of Ise?

Commentary

Part One: Eawase

　With the women's dispute still undecided, Fujitsubo spoke this poem in place of a verdict. The loftiness of the Josanmi heroine was not to be dismissed, she said, but the name of the Middle Captain—Narihira—could not be brought low. With this the side defending the Tales of Ise carried the day, and the exchange of the women is joined by the authority of the Empress.

　"Mirume" is the eye's view with the seaweed of that name inside it. "Urafuri" is a heart grown old, with the word for shore in it. Seaweed, shore, the fisher of Ise, and sinking all belong to the sea. "The fisher of Ise" is the fisherman there, laying the Ise hero Narihira over Genji in his Suma and Akashi years. It draws on the Suma poem about the fisher of Ise who cuts the wretched seaweed, so that a defense of the tale is overlaid with the memory of Genji's own exile—there lies the depth of the poem.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

To the eye it may have grown worn, grown old with shore and years—but shall we sink the name of the fisher of Ise, aged as it is?

To the eye it may
have grown worn, grown old with shore
and years—but shall we
sink the name of the fisher
of Ise, aged as it is?