The ‘Lord of the Centre,’ i.e. the planet Saturn.

I.e. people with whom one can be quite at ease. It was usual to unharness one’s bulls at the gate.

Ki no Kami’s step-mother.

We learn later that Genji courted this lady in vain from his seventeenth year onward. Though she has never been mentioned before, Murasaki speaks of her as though the reader already knew all about her. This device is also employed by Marcel Proust.

Chūjō means ‘Captain,’ which was Genji’s rank at the time.

Kokinshū 811, an anonymous love-poem.

The hahakigi or ‘broom-tree’ when seen in the distance appears to offer ample shade; but when approached turns out to be a skimpy bush.

Ki no Kami’s sister, referred to later in the story as Nokiba no Ogi.

This name means ‘cicada ‘and is given to her later in the story in reference to the scarf which she ‘discarded as a cicada sheds its husk.’ But at this point it becomes grammatically important that she should have a name and I therefore anticipate.