How wholly glad I
would be, if I could believe
that this were a place
somewhere apart from the world,
and not a part of it all

Meaning

How wholly glad I would be, if I could believe this were a place apart from the world and no part of it at all.

Commentary

Part Three: Azumaya

　Found out by Niou, Ukifune was moved by her mother to a mean little house at Sanjo. In that poor lodging, with the noise of the town never stopping, she passed anxious days, and spoke this poem. It is the first she speaks in the tale, and the sense that runs through her whole life—that there is nowhere for her to settle—is already in it. Her mother answered and tried to comfort her.

　Hitaburu ni is wholly, entirely. "A place not in the world" is somewhere other than this world, where the vexations of society do not reach. Mashikaba ... mashi is contrary to fact, a wish that cannot be granted. That the poem attempts nothing clever suits the way this character has been drawn.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

How wholly glad I would be, if I could believe that this were a place somewhere apart from the world, and not a part of it all

How wholly glad I
would be, if I could believe
that this were a place
somewhere apart from the world,
and not a part of it all