If the boat far out
drifts the wave-roads with nowhere
to put in, then I
shall pole my way across to it—
tell me where you mean to moor
- Meaning
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If the boat far out is drifting the wave-roads with nowhere to put in, I shall pole my way across—only tell me where you mean to moor.
- Commentary
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Part One: Makibashira
As for the Minister of the Center's daughter who had wanted to be Mistress of the Household—the lady of Omi—she had now added a taste for gallantry to her other qualities, and her father was quite at a loss with her. The Kokiden Consort lived in dread of what she might do, and though the Minister told her to keep out of sight she would not. One autumn evening, when a number of well-regarded courtiers were making music in the Consort's rooms, Yugiri looked in and, unusually for him, unbent and joked with the women; and while they were saying how different he was from other men, the lady of Omi pushed her way through them, glared down anyone who tried to stop her, and delivered this poem in a very clear voice.
"The boat far out" is Yugiri. "Yorube nami-ji" folds "having nowhere to put in" into "the road of waves." It refers to his stalled suit with Kumoinokari. "I shall pole my way across" is: I will come to you myself. "Tomari" is the harbor, that is, where he will settle. If you are unattached, she asks, why not me?—too direct by far for a courtship, and with no reserve in it at all. She goes on to quote an old poem about a shelfless little boat rowing back to the same person, and to jeer that it is a dull business to love one woman only. The whole performance is very much her own.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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