Read it through once

The morning had been occupied in receiving a host of New Year visitors; but now Genji thought he would call upon the various inhabitants of his palace, to give them his good wishes and see how they looked in their New Year clothes. ‘Your ladies,’ he said to Murasaki, ‘do not seem to take these proceedings seriously. I found them romping together, instead of saying their prayers. You and I will have to hold a service of our own.’ So saying he recited the prayer, not without certain additions which showed that he took the business only a trifle more seriously than the ladies whom he had just criticized. He then handed her the poem: ‘May the course of our love be clear as the waters of yonder lake, from which, in the spring sunshine, the last clot of ice has melted away.’ To this she answered: ‘On the bright mirror of these waters I see stretched out the cloudless years love holds for us in store.’ Then (as how many times before!) Genji began telling her that, whatever was reported of him or whatever she herself observed, she need never have any anxiety. And he protested, in the most violent and impressive terms, that his passion for her underlay all that he felt or did, and could not be altered by any passing interest or fancy. She was for the moment convinced, and accepted his protestations ungrudgingly.