Though this hut of grass
should fall to ruin when I
am gone from the world,
this one word, I would believe,
will neither wither nor part

Meaning

Though this hut of grass fall to ruin when I am gone, this one word, I would believe, will neither wither nor be broken off.

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　In summer the Eighth Prince knew that his time was near, and asked Kaoru, who had come to Uji, to look after his daughters. He put the charge into a single word and then spoke this poem. Kaoru answered and gave his promise, and the prince died soon after at the mountain temple. This entrusting of the daughters governs everything that follows in the Uji chapters.

　The hut of grass is the villa at Uji, with the sense of a poor and temporary dwelling. In hitokoto, one word, koto also carries koto, the zither, and kareji holds both kare, to wither, and kare, to part. The hut may fall to ruin while the word does not wither, and grass and withering hold the contrast together. That a father's plea for his daughters becomes the chain binding Kaoru to Uji gives the chapter its weight.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though this hut of grass should fall to ruin when I am gone from the world, this one word, I would believe, will neither wither nor part

Though this hut of grass
should fall to ruin when I
am gone from the world,
this one word, I would believe,
will neither wither nor part