折る人の心にかよふふぢばかま
むべ色ことににほひたりけり
むべ色ことににほひたりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Oru hito no kokoro ni kayou fujibakama mube iro koto ni nioitarikeri
- English Translation
-
The heart of the one
who broke it off has passed in-
to this thoroughwort —
no wonder, then, that its colour
glows as no other's does
- Meaning
- The heart of the one who broke it off has passed into this thoroughwort; no wonder its colour glows as no other's does.
- Commentary
-
153 Thoroughwort
While the emperor at Nara was on the throne, the Emperor Saga was still Crown Prince, and on one occasion he presented "Minahito no sono ka ni mezuru fujibakama kimi nomi tame to taoritaru kyō" to him. The emperor's reply was "Oru hito no kokoro ni kayou fujibakama mube iro koto ni nioitarikeri". That is the whole of the section.
The emperor at Nara is Emperor Heizei, and the Emperor Saga is his brother. The thoroughwort is one of the seven plants of autumn, valued for its scent.
The setting is the arrival of the flower.
What prompted the poem is the one sent with it, "Minahito no sono ka ni mezuru fujibakama kimi nomi tame to taoritaru kyō".
This reply closes the hundred and fifty-third section. The prose passes no judgement; the section consists of the exchange alone. It was later included in the Shokugoshūi-shū.
The opening says that the heart of the one who picked it has passed into the flower.
He takes the name of the plant over unchanged, starting from the same flower — a properly matched reply.
The word in the fourth line means: no wonder, quite rightly, and gives the tone of a reason understood.
The closing marks the recognition that the colour glows as it does; the verb covers both a colour showing bright and a scent carrying. Where the other spoke of scent, he speaks of colour, and attributes its beauty to the giver's heart. He thanks him by praising the flower rather than in any word of thanks.
- Source
- Yamato Monogatari
- Other
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- What is thought and not spoken — that is the greater by far, and I say nothing: not of Iwate not of the bird, nothing more
- The thoroughwort that all the world delights in for its scent — and today I have broken off a spray for you, and for you alone
- Whose purification is this cock with its streamers that on Tatsuta — where the Chinese robe is cut — goes on and on with its crying
- Like the water of the Tatsuta, running down to find the rock's root — not knowing where it goes: is it crying, then, as I do