Kaji o tae Yura no minato ni yoru fune no tayori mo shiranu okitsu shiokaze - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

梶を絶え由良の湊に寄る舟の
たよりも知らぬ沖つ潮風

Roma-ji: Kaji o tae Yura no minato ni yoru fune no tayori mo shiranu okitsu shiokaze
English Translation: Its rudder lost,
toward the harbor of Yura
drifts the boat, unsure,
knowing nothing it may trust:
the salt wind from the open sea
Meaning: A boat that has lost its oar drifts toward the harbor of Yura, knowing nothing it can rely on, and over it blows the salt wind from the open sea.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1073

Headnote: "When he presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the third poem of the sequence on love with no known course, sung through boats. A boat that has lost its oar drifts toward the harbor of Yura, with nothing to rely on, in the salt wind from the open sea, a figure for a love with nowhere to turn. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "Regent and Chancellor," is Kujō Yoshitsune. A son of the Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to Regent and Chancellor. He wrote the Kana Preface of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The foundation poem is Sone no Yoshitada's in this book, 1071: "Yura no to o / wataru funabito / kaji o tae / yukue mo shiranu / koi no michi kamo."

The first line, "kaji o tae," sets the third line of the foundation poem unchanged as its first line.
The second line, "Yura no minato ni," changes the foundation poem's "Yura no to" to the harbor, the place where a boat should come in.
The third line, "yoru fune no," means "of the boat trying to come in to the harbor."
The fourth line, "tayori mo shiranu," means "knowing nothing to rely on."
The last line, "okitsu shiokaze," ends on a noun; "tsu" is an old case particle meaning "of." The foundation poem's "yukue mo shiranu koi no michi" is restated through landscape alone as "tayori mo shiranu okitsu shiokaze," showing a love with nowhere to turn without ever naming love. Against the following wind of the preceding poem, here blows the unreliable salt wind of the open sea, and the next poem, by Princess Shokushi, also closes on sea wind with "yukue mo shiranu yae no shiokaze."
Author: Kujō Yoshitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Oikaze ni yae no shioji o yuku fune no honoka ni dani mo aimiteshigana
Next Poem: Shirube se yo ato naki nami ni kogu fune no yukue mo shiranu yae no shiokaze