Soaked through and through
by the dew at the eaves of
this field of reeds, I
must go parting my way out
through mists that stand eightfold deep

Meaning

Soaked through by the dew at the eaves of this reed field, I must part my way out through mists that stand eightfold deep.

Commentary

Part Two: Yugiri

　In the end the night went by with nothing gained. The moon was perfectly clear and came in unhindered by the mist. Yugiri left the villa in a way that could only look, to anyone watching, like a man going home in the morning. He spoke this poem as he went, describing himself wet with dew and pushing through mist, hoping for her pity. She answered and turned that aside as well. The priest conducting the rites saw him leaving at dawn, and from that everything began to move in a direction no one had intended.

　"Field of reeds" is ground overgrown with them. "Dew at the eaves" is what gathers there, and it stands for tears. "Soaked through" is being wet to the skin. "Mists that stand eightfold deep" are layer upon layer of them, at once the difficulty of the road and the barrier between the two of them. He lays the morning's dew and mist together to plead his hardship, borrowing the shape of a lovers' parting at dawn while nothing whatever has happened—which gives the poem its irony.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Soaked through and through by the dew at the eaves of this field of reeds, I must go parting my way out through mists that stand eightfold deep

Soaked through and through
by the dew at the eaves of
this field of reeds, I
must go parting my way out
through mists that stand eightfold deep