Were I but the wind
Blowing where it will, myself,
Then through jeweled blinds
Seeking out a narrow gap,
I might enter where you dwell.
- Meaning
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If I myself could become the wind that blows everywhere, I would search for a narrow opening in the jeweled blinds and enter where you dwell.
- Commentary
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64. Jeweled Blinds
A certain man had not yet spoken intimately with a woman in secret or shared words of love with her.
The poem was composed by the man when he wondered suspiciously where the woman might be living. The meaning of the poem is that, since he cannot become the wind, he regrets that he cannot freely search out the place where she lives and go to her. It is an approach from the man expressing his wish to meet the woman.
The relationship between the two likely began when the man noticed the woman at a public occasion such as a festival. Because he does not even know where she lives, the poems are exchanged in letters through someone who knows both of them.
Even though she corresponds with the man, the woman does not easily allow the relationship to advance. Perhaps it is her caution, or perhaps there are other circumstances.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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Her tresses ninety-nine—
One year short of a hundred,
All in tangled white—
She must still long after me,
For I see her in a dream.
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Upon the straw mat spread,
Laying down one sleeve of mine—
Shall it be tonight
That, without meeting the one
I long for, I sleep alone?
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Though it be the wind,
Elusive and hard to hold,
Even through jeweled blinds—
Unless one grants leave to it,
How could it seek out a gap?
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To hide my longing—
I strive to bear it, yet am lost;
I have been overcome—
If, when we meet, it must be so,
Then be it so, come what may.