My body is thus
now outside the sacred rope,
yet the heart I held
within me in those days of
old I have not once forgotten

Meaning

My body is now outside the sacred rope, yet the heart I held within me in those old days I have never once forgotten.

Commentary

Part One: Eawase

　Hearing that the contest would be held before the Emperor, the Suzaku Retired Emperor sent paintings to the Umetsubo Consort, the former Priestess. Among scrolls of the year's ceremonies, some with the Engi Emperor's own brush, and scrolls of his own reign, the rite at the great hall on the day of her descent to Ise had been painted with particular care. Set in a fine box of aloeswood, added to the sacred scene of the imperial palanquin drawn up at the hall, this poem was written. She answered.

　"My body is thus outside the sacred rope" plays "shime," the rope that bounds a sacred place: her past as a servant of the gods and his own present, retired and outside affairs. "Sono kami" is that time, chosen for its link with the gods, meaning the descent to Ise. "The heart within" is his inmost feeling. Like the comb poem of the first section it has the farewell-comb rite of the Sakaki chapter behind it, and a retired sovereign entrusts his unchanged feeling to a picture.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

My body is thus now outside the sacred rope, yet the heart I held within me in those days of old I have not once forgotten

My body is thus
now outside the sacred rope,
yet the heart I held
within me in those days of
old I have not once forgotten