Sasagani no ima wa to kagiru suji nite mo kakute wa shibashi taeji to zo omou

English Translation

Though the spider's thread
be one now drawn to its end,
even so, I think,
this at least shall not be broken
for a little while yet.

Meaning

Though the spider's thread be drawn now to its end, even so I think this at least shall not break for a little while yet.

Commentary

46 Exchange with the Lady of the Jōganden

The lady of the Jōganden had become Mistress of the Handmaids the year before last. That she should not so much as ask after such a state of affairs was strange; perhaps, since an estrangement had arisen between the author and Kaneie that ought never to have arisen, she found the author's house disagreeable as well. Thinking it wrong that she should not know how far things had gone, the author added a poem to a letter she was sending her. The answer came, with a great deal said, and very feelingly, and then a poem.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. The lady of the Jōganden was Kaneie's sister, and had become Mistress of the Handmaids the year before last; the text gives no name. The estrangement that ought never to have arisen is that between Kaneie and the author.
It is autumn in the first year of Tenroku, and the places are the author's dwelling and the lady's residence.
Thinking that the lady's failure even to ask after her might mean that, because of the rift with Kaneie, she now found this house distasteful, and that she could not know how far beyond all reason things had gone, the author added this poem to a letter she was sending.
The reply said a great deal, in the most affecting way, and closed with "Taeki to mo kiku zo kanashiki toshitsuki o ikani kake koshi kumo naranaku ni."

The opening names the spider and its thread, the standing figure for a slender and precarious connection. In the first book, at "Fuku kaze ni tsukete mo towamu sasagani no kayoishi michi wa sora ni tayu tomo," the correspondence between two separated women was likewise entrusted to a spider's thread. The second line means that a limit has been set, that things with Kaneie have come to their end. The word in the third means a strand of thread and also the line of a human connection, so that scene and feeling are held in one word. The fourth means: even so, even in this state — that is, even if the marriage should be severed. The close is bound by an emphatic particle and declares that this correspondence at least shall not be let go. Since the lady is her husband's sister, the tie must fall away of itself if the marriage does; and having likened that slenderness to a spider's thread, the poem asks that it be held all the same.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other