By the reed-grown shore
A small boat without a deck—
How many times now
Must it go and come again,
With not a soul who knows it?

Meaning

That small undecked boat rowing along the reed-lined shore must be going back and forth countless times, yet there is no one who knows of it.

Commentary

92. A Small Boat Without a Deck

A certain man, hoping that he might somehow meet the woman he longed for, would come again and again to the place near her house and then return.
The poem was composed when the man could not even send her a letter.

The poem suggests that, because she never notices him at all, he must go and come back again and again without anyone knowing.
It is like a soliloquy in which a timid man, lacking confidence, belittles himself for being unable to do anything toward the woman he loves.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

Cherry blossoms now Today bloom in such fragrance— Yet who can be sure That beyond in that far place They will bloom tomorrow night?
Though I would regret Yet this day that ends the spring Has come at last now— Even to the evening hour Of this final day of spring.
Love, love if you must— Yet why should such longing be Without any match? Between the high and the low How bitter the pain must be.
In autumn nights long Do they forget the spring days? Is it perhaps so? Does the autumn mist surpass Spring’s soft haze a thousandfold?

By the reed-grown shore A small boat without a deck— How many times now Must it go and come again, With not a soul who knows it?

By the reed-grown shore
A small boat without a deck—
How many times now
Must it go and come again,
With not a soul who knows it?