On the cord of tears
so fragile that they will not
stay strung upon it,
how should I ever tie down
a bond that is meant to last
- Meaning
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On a cord of tears too fragile to be strung at all, how should I ever tie down a bond that is meant to last?
- Commentary
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Part Three: Agemaki
Oigimi's reply to Kaoru's poem on the knotted cords. Keeping to her father's charge, she means to avoid marriage, and she answers that her own life is too short for a long promise. Kaoru did not give up, and from here come the talks through the standing curtain and the visits by night that fill the chapter.
Nuku is to thread and string a thing, and tama no o is the cord on which beads are strung, a standing figure for a life. Tears that cannot be strung on it stand at once for her frail person and her short life. She takes up his musubu and answers within the same set of words belonging to cord and thread, so that learning and refusal are carried in a single turn of phrase.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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