You are thinking, it
seems, without putting it forth
in ears—the slender
plume grass, whose beckoning sleeves
are thick with the fallen dew

Meaning

You are thinking, it seems, without putting it forth in ears: the slender plume grass, whose beckoning sleeves lie thick with dew.

Commentary

Part Three: Yadorigi

　Looking at the slender plume grass in the garden of the Nijo residence, Niou sent this to Naka no Kimi. After the marriage to the Sixth Daughter his visits had grown rare, yet his feeling for Naka no Kimi remained, and he sends poems like this to see how she stands with him. She answered, but her wish to return to Uji did not go away, and in a later chapter that wish decides the fate of Ukifune.

　Ho ni idenu is not putting out ears of grain, and carries the sense of not letting one's feeling show. Shino susuki is the slender plume grass, whose swaying in the wind was habitually seen as a hand beckoning. "Beckoning sleeves" makes sleeves of its blades, and tsuyu shigeku shite hints at tears. Reading another's heart by way of the grass in the garden is a set form, and the half position of a man who neither reproaches nor apologizes comes through it clearly.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

You are thinking, it seems, without putting it forth in ears—the slender plume grass, whose beckoning sleeves are thick with the fallen dew

You are thinking, it
seems, without putting it forth
in ears—the slender
plume grass, whose beckoning sleeves
are thick with the fallen dew