The mist that rises
and closes about the rough
fence of a hill dweller
will not hold back a man whose
heart is elsewhere in the sky
- Meaning
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The mist that closes about the rough fence of a hill dweller will not hold back a man whose heart is already elsewhere.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Yugiri
The Fallen Leaf Princess answered Yugiri's poem with this one. To a man using the mist as his excuse to stay, she replies that if he has no wish to remain the mist will hardly keep him—telling him, without saying so, to go. He did not go. He stayed on, and when night came he made his way into her room. She held him off through the blinds while he pressed on her the feeling of years, and the night ended with nothing gained.
"Hill dweller" is someone of low standing living in the hills, and she uses it of her own poor lodging. "Fence" is a rough one woven of brushwood or bamboo. "Closes about" is mist settling over the whole of a place. "Heart is elsewhere in the sky" takes up his "sky" and turns it into a word for insincerity. She uses his own scene and his own words and reverses only their sense, wrapping a refusal in something mild.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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