On a winter night
when, resent it as I may,
my breast will not clear,
it is barred the tighter still—
this stone gate of the barrier

Meaning

On a winter night when, resent it as I may, my breast will not clear, the stone gate of the barrier is barred tighter still.

Commentary

Part Two: Yugiri

　Brought back to the Ichijo residence, the Fallen Leaf Princess shut herself into the inner room and would not come out. Day after day Yugiri spent every argument he had, and she kept the door closed. He spoke this poem on a winter night, with that door still between them. She did not relent, and in the end he forced his way in. He stayed on the next day as well, so that to all the world the marriage appeared to have been made.

　"Resent it as I may" is being unable to see resentment through. "My breast will not clear" is a heart that stays closed, and the verb covers both a door opening and a heart lightening. "Barred tighter still" is being shut more firmly. "The stone gate of the barrier" is a checkpoint's massive gate, and it stands for the door that will not open. Two closed things—a breast and a door—are bound in a single word, and though the poem states a grievance it has lost none of its pressure.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

On a winter night when, resent it as I may, my breast will not clear, it is barred the tighter still— this stone gate of the barrier

On a winter night
when, resent it as I may,
my breast will not clear,
it is barred the tighter still—
this stone gate of the barrier