That flute whose sound blows
joined with the withering wind—
I have not a word
with which to draw it back here
and hold the player near me

Meaning

That flute sounding along with the cold wind—I have no words left that could draw it back and keep it here.

Commentary

Part One: Hahakigi

　Answering the courtier's poem, the woman at the wagon koto sent back this one at once. In the flute heard beyond the gate she reads the heart of the man now moving away from her. The poem is quick and well made, and the Sama no Kami was impressed after a fashion, but this constant display of cleverness wore on him, and in the end he stopped visiting the house.

　"Kogarashi" is the cold wind of winter, used here with the man's coldness folded into it. "Hikitodomu" takes up the "hold in place" of the poem before it, carrying the exchange's words faithfully forward. Where he asked whether her koto could hold him, she answers that not even words can, which is admirable as a duel of wit and yet lowers her in his estimation—and that is the irony of the anecdote.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

That flute whose sound blows joined with the withering wind— I have not a word with which to draw it back here and hold the player near me

That flute whose sound blows
joined with the withering wind—
I have not a word
with which to draw it back here
and hold the player near me