Knowing it for what,
am I to give you comfort?
Is it the living
one you long for, or the one
who is gone that grieves you so

Meaning

Knowing it for what, am I to comfort you? Is it the living one you long for, or the one who is gone that grieves you?

Commentary

Part Two: Yugiri

　The Ichijo lady died, and Yugiri threw himself into arranging the funeral and the services, turning what was to have been a modest affair into something grand. No answer came from the Fallen Leaf Princess, and he grew more and more downcast. Watching him, Kumoinokari put this poem to him as a way of asking what was in his mind. He answered evasively, and the distance between them widened.

　"It" here is grief, the pain in him. "Knowing it for what" asks on what ground she is to console him. "The living one" is the Fallen Leaf Princess. "The one who is gone" is the Ichijo lady. She sets out two possibilities and lets him choose, when in truth neither is forgivable—which makes it one of her most cutting poems.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Knowing it for what, am I to give you comfort? Is it the living one you long for, or the one who is gone that grieves you so

Knowing it for what,
am I to give you comfort?
Is it the living
one you long for, or the one
who is gone that grieves you so