Read it through once

The next reference to Michinaga’s relations with Murasaki is as follows: ‘His Excellency the Prime Minister caught sight of _The Tale of Genji_ in her Majesty’s room, and after making the usual senseless jokes about it, he handed me the following poem, written on a strip of paper against which a spray of plum-blossom had been pressed: “How comes it that, sour as the plum-tree’s fruit, you have contrived to blossom forth in tale so amorous?” To this I answered: “Who has told you that the fruit belies the flower? For the fruit you have not tasted, and the flower you know but by report.”[7]