Though I were to sink
into that river of tears
you would throw yourself
in, I do not think that I
could forget those longed-for shoals

Meaning

Though I sank into that river of tears you would throw yourself into, I could not forget the shoals of the times I long for.

Commentary

Part Three: Sawarabi

　Kaoru's reply to Ben's poem. He says that dying would not make him able to forget Oigimi, receiving the old woman's grief and setting his own beside it. That night, talking of the dead sister, he saw her likeness in Naka no Kimi as she sat downcast at the prospect of leaving Uji, and regretted that he had not kept her for himself as her sister's memorial instead of giving her to Niou. From that regret runs the attachment that will lead him, from the Yadorigi chapter on, to Ukifune.

　It is a neat exchange, taking over her river of tears and throwing oneself in. Seze is the shallows of a river and also carries oriori, the times and occasions, so that it works as a word belonging with the river. To say that he will not forget even in death is strong for a poem of consolation, and shows that his feeling for Oigimi is still alive in him. Framed as an answer to an old servant's grief, it is in fact a statement of his own unfinished longing.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though I were to sink into that river of tears you would throw yourself in, I do not think that I could forget those longed-for shoals

Though I were to sink
into that river of tears
you would throw yourself
in, I do not think that I
could forget those longed-for shoals