How am I to know
it is a thousand fathoms,
when the tide that comes
and goes is so changeable
and never at rest at all

Meaning

How am I to know it is a thousand fathoms, when the tide that rises and falls is never once at rest?

Commentary

Part One: Aoi

　Murasaki no Ue wrote this on a piece of paper at hand in answer to Genji's poem. She turns aside his promise to see her whole future, saying she cannot simply believe it. He admired her hand and her wit, and held her the dearer for it. Afterward they went out to watch the festival, and there they met Naishi no Suke.

　"A thousand fathoms" takes up his own word and returns it, as the exchange required. "The tide that rises and falls" carries his sea imagery forward while laying a changeable human heart over it. "Nodokeshi" is being calm and settled. Answering a blessing with doubt, the poem holds no reproach, and shows a young girl already too clear-eyed to take his words at face value. That distance she keeps from what Genji says runs on through the chapters to come.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

How am I to know it is a thousand fathoms, when the tide that comes and goes is so changeable and never at rest at all

How am I to know
it is a thousand fathoms,
when the tide that comes
and goes is so changeable
and never at rest at all