Ka bakari wa kaze ni mo tsute yo hana no e ni - Genji Monogatari(English Translation & Meaning)

かばかりは風にもつてよ花の枝に
立ちならぶべきにほひなくとも

Roma-ji: Ka bakari wa kaze ni mo tsute yo hana no e ni
tachinarabubeki nioi naku tomo
English Translation: At least let this scent
be carried to you by the wind,
even if I have
no fragrance fit to stand beside
the blossoms on the branch
Meaning: At least let this scent be carried to you on the wind, though I have no fragrance fit to stand beside the blossoms on the branch.
Commentary: Part One: Makibashira

　This is her reply. The Emperor said that he would gladly have sat out the night for love of the place, but that he felt for the man who would grudge it; and how, he wondered aloud, was he to send to her now?—which she found almost too gracious to bear. That she did not wholly turn from him moved him, and he went away looking back again and again. Afterward the Commander took her straight to his own house.

　"Ka bakari" is his own word, used here for the scent alone. "Let the wind carry it" is: at least let there be word between us. "The blossoms on the branch" are the ladies of the palace, beside whom she disclaims any standing. Using the plum's scent and the flowering branch exactly as he had set them out, she offers the scent and withdraws on the question of rank—two moves in one. She neither refuses him nor promises anything. That balance is her answer.
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Genji Monogatari
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Ka bakari wa kaze ni mo tsute yo hana no e ni tachinarabubeki nioi naku tomo

Ka bakari wa kaze ni mo tsute yo hana no e ni
tachinarabubeki nioi naku tomo