The one I once knew
and the house are turned to smoke,
and yet, for what cause,
has this body of mine stayed
unconsumed and lingered on

Meaning

Both the one I knew and the house have turned to smoke; for what cause has this body of mine been left unconsumed?

Commentary

Part Three: Hashihime

　Fire destroyed the Prince's house in the capital, and he moved with his daughters to a villa at Uji. He had already sent his wife up in the smoke of the pyre, and now the house he had lived in had gone the same way. At Uji, where the sound of the river never stops, he spoke this poem. With that move the scene of the tale settles at Uji and the ten Uji chapters begin.

　"The one I once knew" is his dead wife, and "the house" is the burned residence in the capital. The smoke of the pyre and the smoke of the fire are held in the single word kemuri, so that the two losses become one. To be left unconsumed is said of smoke or dew that does not vanish, and here of a man who alone survives. The removal to Uji reads both as a descent away from the capital and as a step toward death.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The one I once knew and the house are turned to smoke, and yet, for what cause, has this body of mine stayed unconsumed and lingered on

The one I once knew
and the house are turned to smoke,
and yet, for what cause,
has this body of mine stayed
unconsumed and lingered on