Wet with the droplets
that fall from under the tree,
I wear it backward—
this robe of haze that has come
to me in the spring this year

Meaning

Wet with the drops that fall beneath the tree, I wear it in the wrong order—this robe of haze that has come to me this spring.

Commentary

Part Two: Kashiwagi

　Leaving the Ichijo residence, Yugiri went straight on to the house of the retired minister. Kashiwagi's father had a good many younger sons gathered about him. His grief at having lost the eldest was deep, and even facing Yugiri he could not at once hold back his tears. He spoke this poem then, and Yugiri and Kashiwagi's younger brother, the Controller, followed, so that the three sang in turn. Mourning for Kashiwagi comes to its height in this scene, and the tale then moves on to the daily lives of those who are left.

　"Droplets from under the tree" are what falls on one standing beneath a tree, and it means being wet with tears. "Backward" is out of order: a child should mourn a parent, and here it is a parent mourning a child. "Robe of haze" takes the thin spring mist for cloth, and here it is mourning dress. Every bright thing the season offers is turned to the color of mourning, and a father's grief is set down entirely in the words of a season and a robe.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Wet with the droplets that fall from under the tree, I wear it backward— this robe of haze that has come to me in the spring this year

Wet with the droplets
that fall from under the tree,
I wear it backward—
this robe of haze that has come
to me in the spring this year