Making a pretext
of the dew on the grass blades
you must part to go,
do you mean even so to
lay a wet robe upon me

Meaning

Making a pretext of the dew on the grass you must part to go, do you mean even so to lay false blame upon me?

Commentary

Part Two: Yugiri

　The Fallen Leaf Princess answered Yugiri's poem with this one. He is using a wet road home, she says outright, to let the world believe in a bond that does not exist. Her guard was well placed: the priest did see him leaving at dawn, and word reached her mother. Ill as she was, the Ichijo lady wrote to Yugiri, and immediately afterward her condition took a sudden turn.

　"Part to go" takes up his own "part my way out." "Dew on the grass blades" takes up his dew. "Pretext" is a made-up excuse. "Lay a wet robe" continues the phrase from the exchange before, holding together being wet and being saddled with a rumor one has not earned. She receives every one of his words and then names his intention exactly—among the sharpest poems she gives him.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Making a pretext of the dew on the grass blades you must part to go, do you mean even so to lay a wet robe upon me

Making a pretext
of the dew on the grass blades
you must part to go,
do you mean even so to
lay a wet robe upon me