On the sacred leaves
the shrine servants hold up now
in their own two hands,
white mulberry has been hung—
the frost of the deep night

Meaning

On the sacred branches the shrine servants hold up in their hands, white mulberry has been hung again—the frost of this deep night.

Commentary

Part Two: Wakana Ge

　The Akashi Consort followed Murasaki no Ue's poem with this one. She takes the same frost and sets it not on the pines but on the sacred branches the shrine servants carry, so that the rite in front of her goes straight into the verse. For a woman who had come on this pilgrimage with her mother, the Akashi lady, and her grandmother the nun, the journey was also a journey into her family's past. Nakatsukasa followed with a third poem, and the set was closed.

　"Shrine servants" are those in the god's service. The sacred branches are used at rites, and white mulberry was bound to them as a matter of course. "Hung again" is the adding of one thing to another: frost has settled on top of the cloth that is already there. Where the first poem saw the frost as the garland itself, this one has frost laid over real cloth, taking the same idea one step finer. As a poem in a set it carries the previous one forward and shifts the angle with a light hand.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

On the sacred leaves the shrine servants hold up now in their own two hands, white mulberry has been hung— the frost of the deep night

On the sacred leaves
the shrine servants hold up now
in their own two hands,
white mulberry has been hung—
the frost of the deep night