Which of them should I
single out and dwell upon?
In a world where dew
that vanishes and forms again
is not on grass blades alone

Meaning

Which of them should I single out and dwell on, in a world where the dew that vanishes and forms again does not lie on grass blades alone?

Commentary

Part Two: Yugiri

　Yugiri answered Kumoinokari's poem with this one. Asked to choose between the living and the dead, he says that the impermanence of the world cannot be divided that way—and so slips past the question of the Fallen Leaf Princess. His wife was not satisfied, and her suspicion deepened. When at last he brought the Princess back to the Ichijo residence, the marriage broke past repair.

　"Single out" takes up her either-or exactly. "Dew that vanishes and forms again" is dew coming and going, an image for a life that does not last. "Not on grass blades alone" means that what happens to dew happens to people too. Turning a particular question into a general truth about impermanence, he appears to answer and does not—which is the whole point of the exchange.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Which of them should I single out and dwell upon? In a world where dew that vanishes and forms again is not on grass blades alone

Which of them should I
single out and dwell upon?
In a world where dew
that vanishes and forms again
is not on grass blades alone