She describes her young girlhood when she had been absorbed in reading the Tale of Genji and her yearning for the world of that story, and the grim reality that she faced by the repeated deaths of her family and people close to her.
源氏物語を読みふけり、物語世界への憧憬に過ごした少女時代、度重なる身内の死去によって見た厳しい現実。