Though the years go by,
is this a heart that will change—
the heart that I pledge
to you at the headland of
the little isle of orange

Meaning

Though the years go by, will this heart change—the heart I pledge to you here at the headland of the little orange isle?

Commentary

Part Three: Ukifune

　On the tenth of the Second Month, at the poetry gathering in the palace, Niou saw Kaoru murmuring an old verse with Ukifune in mind, and grew impatient. He rode down to Uji again through snow, took her up in his arms into a small boat, and set out across the river for a hideaway on the far bank. On the way, under the moon of the last quarter, the boatman stopped his pole at the little orange isle. Looking at its evergreen, Niou spoke this poem. Ukifune's reply is the one from which the chapter takes its name.

　The orange is an evergreen and is the standard image of what does not change colour. "The headland of the little isle" is a real islet in the Uji river, brought in as witness to the oath. Kawaramu mono ka is a rhetorical question: it will not change. That an eternal promise should be made in so unsteady a place as a boat hints at what will come of it, and scene and poem are of a piece.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Though the years go by, is this a heart that will change— the heart that I pledge to you at the headland of the little isle of orange

Though the years go by,
is this a heart that will change—
the heart that I pledge
to you at the headland of
the little isle of orange