Since you went from us
and the steep path by the rocks
fell into disuse,
with what mind am I to look
on the snow upon the pines

Meaning

Since you left us and the steep path by the rocks fell into disuse, with what mind am I to look on the snow upon the pines?

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　In winter, in the snowbound villa at Uji, Oigimi spoke this to her sister. While their father was shut away at the mountain temple, people had gone back and forth on that road; now that too has stopped. Naka no Kimi answered, and the loneliness of two sisters passing the winter alone is set out.

　The steep path by the rocks is the difficult road joining the villa to the temple. The snow on the pines is the standard winter scene of a mountain village. What she once looked at with her father in mind has lost its meaning. The rhetorical "with what mind am I to look" catches how bereavement changes the way the world itself appears.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Since you went from us and the steep path by the rocks fell into disuse, with what mind am I to look on the snow upon the pines

Since you went from us
and the steep path by the rocks
fell into disuse,
with what mind am I to look
on the snow upon the pines