That river mouth
that noised abroad the shallow
name you gave to me—
how did it let slip the tale
of the rough fence at the barrier?

Meaning

That river mouth of yours, which noised abroad my shallow name—how did it let slip the tale of the rough fence at the barrier?

Commentary

Part One: Fujiura

　Yugiri, having asked for a lodging, was led by Kashiwagi to Kumoinokari, and after six years they were joined. He reproached her: a man who might have died of love and become a byword, he had been forgiven only for his constancy, and it was unkind of her not to know it. Then he asked whether she had marked the drift of the "Reed Fence" the Lesser Captain had sung—a cruel fellow—and said he had wanted to fling back "the river mouth" at him; and she, finding it painful to hear, made this poem. That she added "how shameful" was very endearing.

　"A shallow name" is a reputation for shallowness, "asashi" playing on shallow water. "Noised abroad" is spread it about. "Kawaguchi," the river mouth, is from the saibara of that name, and plays on "kuchi," mouth—your mouth. "The rough fence at the barrier" is likewise from the song, and means crossing the barrier to lie with a man. "How did it let slip" is heard also as playing "moru," to leak, against "moru," to guard. It was your mouth, she charges, that spread the shallow name—so how did that same mouth let their secret out? Shallow, noise, river mouth, leak, barrier—all woven of water imagery, in a witty exchange built on the saibara.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

That river mouth that noised abroad the shallow name you gave to me— how did it let slip the tale of the rough fence at the barrier?

That river mouth
that noised abroad the shallow
name you gave to me—
how did it let slip the tale
of the rough fence at the barrier?