Though the boatman drifts
with nowhere to put in, and
the wind harries him,
he does not work his way along
the shore in a quarter unlooked for

Meaning

Though the boatman has nowhere to put in and the wind harries him, he does not feel his way along the shore in a quarter he never thought of.

Commentary

Part One: Makibashira

　This is Yugiri's reply. He was much taken aback—he had never heard that anyone in that household spoke so—until it came to him that this must be the lady of Omi he had heard about; and, amused, he sent back these lines, at which she was left, we are told, feeling foolish. With that the chapter of the Cypress Pillar closes, and the tale moves on to the Branch of Plum and the coming of age of the Akashi girl.

　"Nowhere to put in" is her own phrase, taken over. "The boatman the wind harries" is himself, with his marriage unsettled. "A quarter unlooked for" is the lady herself. "Does not feel his way along the shore" is: will not come. He carries over every word of her boat imagery and refuses only the destination. In the chapter of the Boneset the narrator found his poem unworked and conventional; here he handles her associated words exactly, and the difference is itself funny. It is a note of laughter set at the end of the ten Tamakazura chapters.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though the boatman drifts with nowhere to put in, and the wind harries him, he does not work his way along the shore in a quarter unlooked for

Though the boatman drifts
with nowhere to put in, and
the wind harries him,
he does not work his way along
the shore in a quarter unlooked for