Rising now to go,
I cannot tell what sky lies
ahead in this dark
before dawn—and from where has
the dew come that wets my sleeve

Meaning

I rise to go and cannot tell what sky lies ahead in this dark before dawn; and from where has the dew come that wets my sleeve?

Commentary

Part Two: Wakana Ge

　Unable to give up the Third Princess, Kashiwagi had taken her elder sister, the Second Princess, as his wife, and it had done nothing for him. Kojiju, who served the Third Princess, was a niece of his own nurse, and he used that tie to press her again and again. Just then Murasaki no Ue lay ill at the Nijo residence and Genji was there constantly, away from Rokujo. Seizing a time when few were about, Kojiju at last led Kashiwagi into the Princess's room. He spoke this poem at daybreak, unable to bring himself to leave. That one night sets the whole second half of the tale in motion.

　"Rising now to go" is getting up to leave, and the verb sounds the word for dew settling. "The dark before dawn" is the hour when the sky has not yet lightened. "From where has the dew come" asks where the wet on his sleeve is from, dew being the standing word for tears. Saying he cannot tell what lies ahead shows a man who has lost his footing under the weight of what he has done. The form is that of a morning-after poem, but what fills it is fear rather than joy, and that alone marks how far outside the ordinary this scene stands.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Rising now to go, I cannot tell what sky lies ahead in this dark before dawn—and from where has the dew come that wets my sleeve

Rising now to go,
I cannot tell what sky lies
ahead in this dark
before dawn—and from where has
the dew come that wets my sleeve