One could, perhaps, forgive Norimitsu for not immediately understanding what Sei Shōnagon meant with her gift of me ‘seaweed’. Of course, she is making a complicated play-on-words: me kuFasu ‘eat seaweed’ at the time would have been written identically to mekubasu ‘wink at someone to give them a sign’. So, with the seaweed and the poem she was saying, “I’m giving you a sign (that we’re through)!”

Apparently, Norimitsu’s response was to say, “Has my lady composed a poem? Well, I won’t read it now!”, give Sei Shōnagon back her fan and depart in high dudgeon; after which, he gained the reputation as a hater of poetry.