So frail a thing, it
must vanish in the middle
of the empty sky—
this thin snow of the springtime
that drifts wherever winds go

Meaning

So frail a thing, it must vanish in mid-air before it ever lands—this thin spring snow that drifts wherever the wind takes it.

Commentary

Part Two: Wakana Jo

　The Third Princess answered Genji's poem with this one. She takes his thin snow just as he sent it and likens herself to it. The form of the exchange is kept, but the paper and the hand were so plainly a child's that Genji could not help measuring her against Murasaki no Ue. He went on treating her with every care and could not give her his heart, and within the Rokujo residence she was left alone.

　"So frail a thing" is what is slight and quickly over. "The empty sky" is the middle of the air, saying that the snow goes before it reaches the ground, and it also carries a mind that will not settle. "Drifts" is being carried on the wind, adding to the sense of having nothing to hold to. She returns his "thin snow" correctly enough, but the poem only says how frail she is; there is no turn, no answering wit. That plainness is itself a sign of where she stands and where she is going.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

So frail a thing, it must vanish in the middle of the empty sky— this thin snow of the springtime that drifts wherever winds go

So frail a thing, it
must vanish in the middle
of the empty sky—
this thin snow of the springtime
that drifts wherever winds go