Only tears will not
be dammed, like the clear spring there
at the barrier—
but the road where we might meet
had long since come to its end

Meaning

Only my tears will not be dammed, like the clear spring at the barrier gate; but the road on which we might have met came to its end long ago.

Commentary

Part Two: Wakana Jo

　Oborozukiyo answered Genji's poem with this one. She grants the tears and tells him that the road on which they might meet has already ended—a plain refusal. He did not withdraw; he pushed the panel aside and reached her. Grieving that it had begun again, she met him for a time, and set her mind on following Suzaku out of the world.

　"Will not be dammed" takes up his "can dam," and adding the clear spring makes the scene at the Osaka gate explicit. "The road where we might meet" is the road at that gate and also sounds the highway through Omi. "Long since come to its end" is flat and final. Receiving his associated words unchanged, granting the tears, and then cutting him off with the road—the reply holds feeling and refusal together in one poem, and does it with skill.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Only tears will not be dammed, like the clear spring there at the barrier— but the road where we might meet had long since come to its end

Only tears will not
be dammed, like the clear spring there
at the barrier—
but the road where we might meet
had long since come to its end