Blow, and go on blowing,
flute of the deep night, until
even the branch where
the warbler has made its roost
bends and sways before the sound

Meaning

Blow on, flute of the deep night, until even the branch where the warbler roosts bends before the sound.

Commentary

Part One: Umegae

　Kashiwagi, taking the cup from Genji, made this before passing it to Yugiri. That evening Yugiri had the flute, and was playing in a mode suited to the season, so clearly that the sound seemed to carry beyond the clouds; and Kashiwagi praised it in these lines.

　"The warbler" carries on from the poems before, and here means those who listen. "The branch where it roosts" is where the bird sits. "Until it bends" exaggerates the power of the playing. "Fuki-toosu," to blow it through, belongs with "fuetake," the bamboo flute, in the imagery of wind. It is praise of a flute at midnight, and the flat imperative gives it the ease of a company at play. That the speaker is Kashiwagi, heir to his father's mastery of the Japanese koto, praising Yugiri, master of the flute, is part of the point—these two will one day be brothers by marriage.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Blow, and go on blowing, flute of the deep night, until even the branch where the warbler has made its roost bends and sways before the sound

Blow, and go on blowing,
flute of the deep night, until
even the branch where
the warbler has made its roost
bends and sways before the sound