And that autumn, then—
what was it that happened there,
that a cord like this
should be laid upon your heart
and remembered as it is

Meaning

And what was that autumn, then, that a mulberry cord should be laid upon your heart and remembered so?

Commentary

Part One: Sakaki

　The Asagao princess answered on the edge of the mulberry cloth with this poem. He speaks as though something had happened that autumn; she deflects him by professing not to know of anything of the kind. Genji judged her hand not fine but full of spirit, her running script much improved, and let himself imagine how she must have grown as well.

　"That autumn" and "the mulberry cord" both take up his own words, as the exchange required. "What was it, then" is a rhetorical question implying that there was no particular past between them. She uses the language of the rites exactly as he did while stripping out the amorous sense he had loaded into it—a reply entirely in keeping with her steady refusal.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

And that autumn, then— what was it that happened there, that a cord like this should be laid upon your heart and remembered as it is

And that autumn, then—
what was it that happened there,
that a cord like this
should be laid upon your heart
and remembered as it is