Were it a flower
that bloomed at a common hedge,
then I might have gone
and broken it off and looked
at it as much as I wished

Meaning

Were it a flower blooming at an ordinary hedge, I might have broken it off and looked at it as I wished.

Commentary

Part Three: Yadorigi

　In the spring of Kaoru's twenty-fifth year the Fujitsubo Consort died, and her only daughter, the Second Princess, was left without anyone behind her. While preparations were going forward for the girl's coming of age, the Emperor called Kaoru to play go with him and let it be understood, without saying so, that he would like to entrust the princess to him. Kaoru answered with this poem. The Emperor replied at once, pressing the match, but Kaoru could not warm to it: he had still not put aside the elder sister he had lost at Uji.

　A flower blooming at an ordinary hedge is a flower in a plain house, that is, a woman of no great rank. Kaoru's point is that an imperial princess is a flower beyond his reach, and he puts the deference into the standard form of breaking off a flower. Mashi o is contrary to fact, a supposition that cannot be granted. Declaring neither consent nor refusal, and keeping his distance on the ground of rank, is a very characteristic way for him to answer.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Were it a flower that bloomed at a common hedge, then I might have gone and broken it off and looked at it as much as I wished

Were it a flower
that bloomed at a common hedge,
then I might have gone
and broken it off and looked
at it as much as I wished