It is not that we
are to be broken off, and
yet must you, like the
lady of the bridge, wet through
your lone sleeve in the night hours

Meaning

It is not that we are to be broken off, and yet must you, like the lady of the bridge, wet your lone sleeve through the night?

Commentary

Part Three: Agemaki

　Forbidden by his mother the Akashi Empress to leave the palace, Niou could no longer go to Uji. Troubled at the break in his visits, he sent this. Naka no Kimi answered, but the days of waiting went on, and Oigimi, watching, grew more anxious still.

　Nakatayu is for a bond to be broken, and naka also sounds as the middle of the Uji bridge. Hashihime is the goddess of that bridge, and since the chapter of her name she has stood for a woman who waits. "The lone sleeve spread out" is the bedding of one who sleeps alone, and looks back to the Kokinshu poem about the lady of Uji bridge. The one word bridge holds both the distance and the tie.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

It is not that we are to be broken off, and yet must you, like the lady of the bridge, wet through your lone sleeve in the night hours

It is not that we
are to be broken off, and
yet must you, like the
lady of the bridge, wet through
your lone sleeve in the night hours