Though our hearts may pass
between us without a screen,
I would have you not
speak of sleeves that have grown soft
with long wearing, one on one

Meaning

Though our hearts may pass between us without a screen, I would have you not speak of sleeves grown soft with long wearing.

Commentary

Part Three: Agemaki

　Oigimi's reply. She allows that he is one she has opened her mind to, and draws the line clearly against anything further. Kaoru still did not give up, and the strain on her deepened until it turned into illness.

　Hedatenaki kokoro is a mind without reserve. "Sleeves grown soft" takes his naru and shifts it to sode, sleeve, which belongs with clothing. Kakeji is "I would not have it said," the exact reverse of his kakezu shi mo araji. She receives every one of his words and turns each of them round, and as an exchange the pair is finely made.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Do you take it for an ordinary matter— that I made my way parting the bamboo grass on a road so deep in the dew
Though I do not say that we have worn the night robe until it grew soft, surely I am not without the right to a grievance
It is not that we are to be broken off, and yet must you, like the lady of the bridge, wet through your lone sleeve in the night hours
Am I to go on waiting out the far reaches of the Uji bridge, with nothing to trust in but your word that it will not break

Though our hearts may pass between us without a screen, I would have you not speak of sleeves that have grown soft with long wearing, one on one

Though our hearts may pass
between us without a screen,
I would have you not
speak of sleeves that have grown soft
with long wearing, one on one