To speak of it is
a thing to be feared, and yet
this mulberry cord
brings back to mind that autumn
of the days that are long gone

Meaning

It is a fearful thing even to speak of, and yet this mulberry cord brings back to me that autumn long ago.

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　From his retreat, Genji wrote also to the Asagao princess, now High Priestess of Kamo, on the excuse that the wind blew between them. To Chujo no Kimi, who carried the letters, he sent reproaches; to the princess herself this poem. He wrote on pale green Chinese paper and had it delivered with mulberry cloth tied to a sakaki branch, in a suitably sacred style. Her reply came written on the edge of the cloth, and he was moved by how her hand too had improved.

　"Fearful even to speak of" is a fixed formula from the language of the rites. "Yufudasuki" is the mulberry cord worn over the shoulder at ceremonies, a word chosen for her office. "That autumn long ago" is the previous autumn at the Shrine in the Fields. He forces through the impropriety of sending a love poem to a woman consecrated to a god by wrapping it in the vocabulary of the rites—and the text itself calls the habit unbecoming.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

To speak of it is a thing to be feared, and yet this mulberry cord brings back to mind that autumn of the days that are long gone

To speak of it is
a thing to be feared, and yet
this mulberry cord
brings back to mind that autumn
of the days that are long gone