Iro fukaku sometaru tabi no karigoromo kaeramu made no katami to mo miyo

English Translation

Deeply dyed in color,
this hunting robe for the road
I have made for you—
look on it as a keepsake
until the day you return.

Meaning

Look on this deeply dyed hunting robe for your journey as a keepsake until the day you come home.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 895

Headnote: "Composed when sending a hunting robe to someone going away to the provinces."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence of gifts to those leaving the capital and the closing poem of Parting Poems. A deeply dyed hunting robe for the road is to be looked on as a keepsake until the traveler returns. According to the headnote, it was composed when sending a hunting robe to someone going down to the provinces.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Sadayori, his mother was the poet Sagami, and as an official of the late Heian period he held a succession of provincial governorships.
The scene is the sending off of someone bound for the provinces, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion was the gift of a hunting robe to someone going down to the provinces.

The first line, "iro fukaku," means "deeply in color." It speaks of the depth of the dye and suggests the depth of the giver's feeling as well.
The second line, "sometaru tabi no," means "dyed, for the journey," showing that the robe was made as traveling dress.
The third line, "karigoromo," is the informal robe once worn for hunting, here given as clothing for the road. Like the clothing of 857 and the travel robe of 860, it makes this a poem of parting through the gift of a robe.
The fourth line, "kaeramu made no," means "until you return." The time of waiting for that day is entrusted to the robe.
The last line, "katami to mo miyo," is an imperative meaning "look on it as a keepsake." Where 857, at the head of the book, sends clothing "as a keepsake as well," this closing poem also sends a robe as a keepsake, so the opening and close answer each other through robe and keepsake as the book of parting poems ends.

Author

Fujiwara no Akitsuna

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other