Am I to go on
waiting out the far reaches
of the Uji bridge,
with nothing to trust in but
your word that it will not break

Meaning

Am I to go on waiting out the far reaches of the Uji bridge, with nothing to trust but your word that it will not break?

Commentary

Part Three: Agemaki

　Naka no Kimi's reply. Uneasy at the break in his visits, she says that she has no choice but to wait on the strength of his word. Soon after, Niou went to Uji on the pretext of a maple-viewing party, but his attendants kept him from the house and he had to pass it by.

　Taeseji takes up his "it is not that we are to be broken off." The far reaches of the Uji bridge are the middle of a long span, laid over a tie stretched thin by distance. Machiwataru is to go on waiting, and wataru, to cross, belongs with the bridge. The wish to believe and the inability to believe are held together in one image.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though our hearts may pass between us without a screen, I would have you not speak of sleeves that have grown soft with long wearing, one on one
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
Even the foot of the tree I saw once, that time, when the flowers were at their height—even that place is desolate in autumn
It is the cherry that brings it home to us all: blossom at its best and crimson leaf alike belong to a world that does not stay

Am I to go on waiting out the far reaches of the Uji bridge, with nothing to trust in but your word that it will not break

Am I to go on
waiting out the far reaches
of the Uji bridge,
with nothing to trust in but
your word that it will not break