Where would you suppose
you were coming, that you might
break the cherry off
at this house of ours, closed in
with the haze of mourning dye
- Meaning
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Where would you suppose you were coming, to break off the cherry at this house of ours, closed in with the haze of mourning?
- Commentary
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Part Three: Shiigamoto
Naka no Kimi's reply to Niou's poem on the cherry. The sisters were still in mourning for their father, and she says that they are in no state to enjoy the flowers, so declining his offer gently. With this exchange the chapter closes, and the tale passes on to Agemaki.
Sumizome is the black of mourning, and to say that the tree is hazed in that colour is to state that they are in mourning. Kasumikometaru is haze closed in on every side, and takes up his "with no haze between" to answer that what stands between is not haze but grief. She receives his "break it off" in the form of a rhetorical question, refusing him without giving offence, in her own manner.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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