When I look at it,
even the moon that comes out
from the hills and goes
across finds this world hard to
dwell in, and enters the hills

Meaning

When I look at it, even the moon that comes out from the hills and crosses the sky finds this world hard to dwell in, and goes back into the hills.

Commentary

Part Three: Sawarabi

　Naka no Kimi spoke this alone, on the road up from Uji to the capital, or on a night after her arrival at the Nijo residence. She lays her own case, leaving the hills of Uji where she had lived so long and going up to the city, over the moon that comes out from the hills, crosses the sky, and sinks back into the hills. Behind it lies the fear that if things go badly in the capital she may have to return to Uji after all. She was in fact treated with great care by Niou at the Nijo residence, but in time the match with the Sixth Daughter brought her to grief.

　Sumu, to dwell, carries sumu, to be clear, and so belongs with the moon. The moon's course out of the hills and back into them is laid over her own road out of Uji into the capital and possibly back again. Sumiwabite is to find a place hard to live in, and shows a mind already thinking of retreat with the capital still ahead of her. Set at the moment of a happy removal, the poem is all the darker for it.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

When I look at it, even the moon that comes out from the hills and goes across finds this world hard to dwell in, and enters the hills

When I look at it,
even the moon that comes out
from the hills and goes
across finds this world hard to
dwell in, and enters the hills