Though one should seek out
the hills of Yoshino where
no gap breaks the snow,
could the footprints along which
our hearts pass ever break off?

Meaning

Though one should visit the hills of Yoshino where the snow never lifts, could the footprints by which our hearts pass ever break off?

Commentary

Part One: Usugumo

　The nurse answered Akashi no Kimi's poem through her tears with this one. She was to go with the child to the Nijo residence and so would be parted from her mistress. She pledged that word would never cease, and so consoled her. After this, when the snow had melted a little, Genji came to fetch the child, and the tale moves to the parting of mother and daughter.

　"Yukima naki" is with no break in the snow. "The hills of Yoshino" is a poetic name for deep-snow mountains, taking up her "deep mountain" as a figure for the distance between them. "The footprints by which our hearts pass" is word between them, carrying over her word for footprints. "Could they break off?" is a rhetorical question expecting no. Where her mistress wished word never to cease, she pledges that however deep the snow that divides them, the passing of their hearts will not break, taking up the very words of the exchange to answer.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though one should seek out the hills of Yoshino where no gap breaks the snow, could the footprints along which our hearts pass ever break off?

Though one should seek out
the hills of Yoshino where
no gap breaks the snow,
could the footprints along which
our hearts pass ever break off?