芦辺こぐ棚なし小舟をいくそたび
行きかへるらむ知る人もなみ
行きかへるらむ知る人もなみ
- Roma-ji
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Ashibe kogu tananashi obune o ikuso tabi
yukikaeruramu shiru hito mo nami - English Translation
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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
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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
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