Karikoromo ware to wa suraji tsuyu fukaki nohara no hagi no hana ni makasete

English Translation

This hunting robe: I
shall not dye it myself, no
but leave it to be
stained by the clover flowers
of the moor, deep in its dew

Meaning

I shall not dye this hunting robe myself: I leave it to the clover of the moor, where the dew lies deep.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 329

Headnote: topic unknown.
The second poem on bush clover, on a robe stained by the flowers of itself. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet, given by his rank, is Minamoto no Yorimasa, who served as a warrior and was accomplished in poetry, rising to the junior third rank. In Book Three he is the poet of the two hundred and sixty-seventh poem. Nijoin no Sanuki, poet of the hundred and thirtieth in Book Two and the two hundred and thirty-seventh in Book Three, was his daughter.
The time is autumn; the place is a moor where clover grows.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.
The third line of the text does not agree with the phonetic line given beside it; the reading of the text itself is followed here.

The first line names the robe worn for hunting, written of as clothing for going out.
The verb in the second line means to rub plants against cloth to colour it; the auxiliary expresses negative intention: I shall not dye it myself.
The third line means that the dew lies thick. Where there is dew, colour transfers readily.
The fourth line names what will do the dyeing.
The closing line means: leaving it to the flowers. Rather than working the dye himself he lets the walk through the moor do it, the posture of Tsurayuki's hundred and eleventh poem in Book Three, which left the scent to the wind. The poem that follows also concerns a dyed robe, and the two stand together.

Author

Minamoto no Yorimasa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other