[5] A song the words of which were used as a first writing lesson.
[6] There is here a pun, and a reference to poem 3807 in the Manyōshū.
[7] To Lady Rokujō.
[8] Arises out of some connection in a previous existence.
[9] Purple is murasaki in Japanese. From this poem the child is known as Murasaki; and hence the authoress derived the nickname by which she too is known.
[10] His wife.
[11] The song is addressed by a girl to a suspicious lover; Genji reverses the sense.
[12] ‘Though I know not the place, yet when they told me this was the moor of Musashi, the thought flashed through my mind: “What else indeed could it be, since all its grass is purple-dyed?”’
[13] Fujitsubo. The fuji flower is also purple (murasaki) in colour.
[14] The child Murasaki, who was Fujitsubo’s niece. Musashi was famous for the purple dye extracted from the roots of a grass that grew there.