Ta ga yo ni ka tane wa makishi to hito towaba - Genji Monogatari(English Translation & Meaning)

誰が世にか種は蒔きしと人問はば
いかが岩根の松は答へむ

Roma-ji: Ta ga yo ni ka tane wa makishi to hito towaba
ikaga iwane no matsu wa kotaemu
English Translation: If someone should ask
in whose reign the seed of it
was sown, how would the
pine that has taken its root
in the rock make an answer
Meaning: If someone should ask in whose day the seed was sown, how would this pine, rooted in rock, ever answer?
Commentary: Part Two: Kashiwagi

　The Third Month came and the sky turned mild, and the fiftieth-day celebration was held for the newborn boy. The child was fair and beautiful, and Genji could not look at him without seeing something of the dead Kashiwagi. The Third Princess, now a nun, was too ashamed to come before Genji and kept to herself. Holding the child, Genji spoke this poem to her. She could not answer; she only flushed and let the tears fall.

　"In whose reign" is in whose time, and the word also means what lies between a man and a woman. "The seed was sown" is the fathering of a child. "The pine rooted in rock" is the boy, Kaoru. Asked who the father is, how would the child reply—so runs the question, put by a man who already knows everything. Keeping the outward form of a celebration and handing across a blade that only one person can feel: nothing in the tale shows Genji's coldness better.
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Genji Monogatari
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Ta ga yo ni ka tane wa makishi to hito towaba ikaga iwane no matsu wa kotaemu

Ta ga yo ni ka tane wa makishi to hito towaba
ikaga iwane no matsu wa kotaemu