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The passage above hints at the fading love of Genji for Miyasudokoro.

The verb shinobu, "to recall the past," leads into the noun shinobu no kusagoromo, a robe made of a kind of printed cloth, the design pressed from leaves. This cloth is mentioned effectively in The Brocade Tree, but here it seems an extraneous ornament and is hence omitted from the translation.

The poem is quoted from The Tale of Genji, where it seems to mean that the visitor has come without invitation, pretending he had been invited. The poem is an allusive variation on poem no. 982 of the Kokinshū: "My hut is at the foot of Mount Miwa. If you love me come and visit me; my gate is the one with the cedar by it."

Commentators disagree on the nature of the hut, some taking it as the place where the guardian lives, others as a place where sacred food is prepared. The meaning in either case is that buildings which, like everything else at the Shrine in the Fields, seemed highly perishable have miraculously survived.

Kiritsubo was Genji's mother.

Streamers of paper or mulberry bark were inscribed with prayers and attached to sakaki branches, then tossed into the stream.

There are allusions here to the famous poem by Ono no Komachi in which she compares herself to a floating waterweed. See Komachi at Sekidera.

A slightly modified version of the poem Miyasudokoro sent to Genji at Nonomiya. Being wetted by the waves has the additional meaning of having her sleeves wetted by tears. In other words, she is sure nobody will care whether she weeps with sorrow or not.

The Virgin resided at Ise in the Také Palace.

A priest's robe was frequently called kokegoromo, literally "moss robe." Here it has that meaning, but also refers to the moss on the ground. Because it is autumn the grass too is faded like the priest's robe.

The Burning House is a familiar image for this world, which an enlightened person should flee as eagerly as from a burning house.