The colour of the
little isle of orange will
not change—but this boat
adrift upon the water,
and where it goes none can know

Meaning

The colour of the little orange isle will not change; but this boat adrift upon the water—where it goes, no one can know.

Commentary

Part Three: Ukifune

　Ukifune's reply to Niou's poem on the orange isle. His heart may not change, she says, but where her own life is going she cannot tell; and it is from this poem that the chapter takes its name, Ukifune, the drifting boat. The two crossed to the hideaway on the far bank and spent two days there. In time Kaoru learned of the meeting, and from then on she had nowhere left to go.

　"The colour of the little orange isle" takes over the evergreen of his poem. Ukifune is a small boat floating on water, the figure of a life with nothing to hold to. Sitting in a boat, she makes herself the boat: the conceit comes straight out of the scene. The name by which the heroine of the Uji chapters is known is taken from this poem, and it is famous as the one line that states her whole situation.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The colour of the little isle of orange will not change—but this boat adrift upon the water, and where it goes none can know

The colour of the
little isle of orange will
not change—but this boat
adrift upon the water,
and where it goes none can know