For whose sake now should
I gather and make much of
the little cress at
the deep-snowed edge of the stream,
having no parent living

Meaning

For whose sake should I gather and make much of the little cress at the snow-deep water's edge, having no parent left?

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　Naka no Kimi added this after her sister's poem on the bracken. Looking at the cress the abbot had sent, she laments that there is no longer a father to set it before. The pair of poems closes here, and once the sisters' solitude has been pressed on the reader the scene turns to spring.

　The little cress at the water's edge grows by the stream and, with bracken, belongs to the greens of early spring. The ko of koseri sounds as ko, child, and pairs with "no parent" in the closing line. Tsumi kawayasu is to gather and prize a thing, that is, to receive a gift with pleasure. With no one left to be pleased, the season's bounty means nothing, and parent and child, set as a pair, hold the lament up.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

For whose sake now should I gather and make much of the little cress at the deep-snowed edge of the stream, having no parent living

For whose sake now should
I gather and make much of
the little cress at
the deep-snowed edge of the stream,
having no parent living