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?
- Meaning
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Though it may be the wind, which cannot be seized or restrained, unless someone gives permission, how could it find a gap in the jeweled blinds?
- 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.
This poem is the woman’s reply to the man’s poem, "Were I but the wind blowing where it will, then through jeweled blinds seeking out a narrow gap, I might enter where you dwell."
The man and woman have begun exchanging poems in letters, yet the woman keeps her identity hidden. The man’s poem expresses his wish to meet her. However, in her reply, the woman rejects the man’s desire.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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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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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.
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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.
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Resolving not to love,
At the Mitarashi stream
I performed ablutions—
Yet even the gods, it seems,
Have refused to receive them.