In this mountain place
where nothing but tears close in
like a standing mist,
at the hedge the deer as well
lift their voices all as one

Meaning

In this mountain place, where nothing but tears closes in like mist, the deer at the hedge lift their voices with ours.

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　The reply to Niou's condolence. It should have fallen to Naka no Kimi, but her sister wrote for her while she was sunk in grief. Oigimi conveys the state of the house just after their father's death through the crying of the deer. Niou answered again, and the exchange between capital and mountain village continued.

　Kirifutagaru is mist closing in and shutting off the view, said here of eyes blinded by tears. Magaki is a hedge woven of bamboo or brushwood. Morogoe ni naku is to cry together, and naku carries naku, to weep. She takes the deer he had used and turns them into creatures weeping along with the sisters, so that grief becomes the landscape itself.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

In this mountain place where nothing but tears close in like a standing mist, at the hedge the deer as well lift their voices all as one

In this mountain place
where nothing but tears close in
like a standing mist,
at the hedge the deer as well
lift their voices all as one