Then all my coming
here in search of the fragrance
is for nothing, and
you will call it no more than
an ordinary flower-viewing

Meaning

Then my coming here in search of the fragrance counts for nothing, and you will call it no more than an ordinary flower-viewing.

Commentary

Part Two: Maboroshi

　Prince Hyobu answered Genji's poem with this one. He had not come for the scent of plum but for Genji himself, he says, and to be called a flower-viewer is hard. He was Genji's half-brother, the elegant prince who had once courted Tamakazura, and the ease between them shows in the exchange. The brothers talked of the past until dusk, looked out at the plum, and wept.

　"In search of the fragrance" has the scent, and behind it Genji himself. "Counts for nothing" is having come to no purpose. "An ordinary flower-viewing" is a call made in passing. He takes up the flowers and the spring of Genji's poem and answers that flowers were not what brought him—a warm reply, well suited to a visit that is at once a New Year call and an act of condolence.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Then all my coming here in search of the fragrance is for nothing, and you will call it no more than an ordinary flower-viewing

Then all my coming
here in search of the fragrance
is for nothing, and
you will call it no more than
an ordinary flower-viewing