Why has it come to pass
that thus our meeting time
has grown so hard to gain?—
though we had bound our vow
as if to let no water leak.

Meaning

Why has it come to pass that meeting has thus become so hard to gain, though we had bound our vow so firmly as if to let not even water leak through?

Commentary

Episode Twenty-Eight: "Why has it come to pass"

A woman of amorous disposition left her husband’s house and went away to another man.
This poem was composed by the man who had been her husband.

"Afu-go" suggests both the time of meeting and a carrying pole; "katami" suggests both difficulty and a bamboo basket or one’s own share; "musubishi" suggests both binding a vow and scooping up water in one’s hands. It is a poem that makes use of many pivot words.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

I alone, I thought, had one so given to thought— none other there was; yet beneath the water’s surface, there was one more.
At the water’s mouth, am I perhaps seen there?— even the frogs, beneath the water, raise all their voices as one.
At blossoms never have I failed in lamenting— always it was so; yet on this night alone there has been no time like this.
Our meeting seems but like the cord between the gems, so brief it appears; your unfeeling heart seems to stretch on long and long.

Why has it come to pass that thus our meeting time has grown so hard to gain?— though we had bound our vow as if to let no water leak.

Why has it come to pass
that thus our meeting time
has grown so hard to gain?—
though we had bound our vow
as if to let no water leak.