Idly, without cease,
the rain that tells me my worth
keeps falling, so that
even in my sleeves the flood
rises higher than before

Meaning

Idly and without cease the rain that tells me my own worth keeps falling, so that even in my sleeves the water has risen higher than before.

Commentary

Part Three: Ukifune

　Ukifune's reply to Kaoru. Taking up the mizu masaru of his poem, she says that not only the river but the tears in her sleeves have risen. It has the form of a complaint that he comes so seldom, while what in fact speaks in it is the misery of a woman who can attach herself to neither man. Kaoru, without weighing it, went on to fix the Fourth Month as the time for bringing her to the capital.

　"The rain that tells me my worth" leans on the Ise monogatari poem about a rain that makes one know one's own standing in another's heart. Mikasa is the depth of water, with some reading in mikasa, a rain hat, so that it belongs with the rain. Tsurezure to is idly, in low and empty spirits. She leans on an old poem and puts her own plain feeling inside it.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Idly, without cease, the rain that tells me my worth keeps falling, so that even in my sleeves the flood rises higher than before

Idly, without cease,
the rain that tells me my worth
keeps falling, so that
even in my sleeves the flood
rises higher than before