Seeing how the low
reeds have altered in colour,
I think of your sleeves,
and how they must be worn thin
in the dark dye of mourning

Meaning

Seeing the low reeds change colour, I think of your sleeves and how they must be worn thin in the dark dye of mourning.

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　Kaoru sent this in condolence to the sisters after the Eighth Prince's death. Having been charged with looking after them, he kept up his letters at each season, apart from Niou's. Oigimi answered, and the exchanges between Kaoru and Oigimi go on from here.

　Asaji is the short cogon grass that stands for a garden gone to waste. He watches it turn colour and moves from that to the person wearing mourning. Sumizome is the black of mourning dress, and yatsuru is to grow shabby, said of one worn down by grief. The easy movement from scene to person keeps the reserve proper to a man entrusted with their care.

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
The call of a deer that has lost its companion in the morning mist— could anyone hear it as one hears the ordinary?
These altered sleeves are the lodging that the dew takes, and beyond even that, this body of mine has nowhere at all to be set
In the reach of sky where the autumn mist will not clear, all the more now they tell us, as they cry, that this world is a borrowed one

Seeing how the low reeds have altered in colour, I think of your sleeves, and how they must be worn thin in the dark dye of mourning

Seeing how the low
reeds have altered in colour,
I think of your sleeves,
and how they must be worn thin
in the dark dye of mourning