Hitogokoro usuhanazome no karigoromo sate dani arade iro ya kawaran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人心うす花染めの狩衣
さてだにあらで色や変はらん

Roma-ji: Hitogokoro usuhanazome no karigoromo sate dani arade iro ya kawaran
English Translation: A person's heart is
thin as pale-blue-dyed hunting
robes of light color;
yet not even staying so,
will its color fade and change
Meaning: A lover's heart is thin, like a hunting robe dyed pale blue; will it not even stay that way, but fade and change its color like the cloth?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1156

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on the sorrows that follow a meeting. A lover's heart is thin like a hunting robe dyed pale blue, yet it will not even stay so, but will change, as a color fades. The headnote continues "Topic unknown" from the preceding poem, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sakon, Lady Chamberlain of Retired Emperor Sanjō," was a lady chamberlain who served Emperor Sanjō and was known by the name Sakon. She lived in the mid-Heian period.
The original text of the fourth line, "sate dani arade," bears an editorial note indicating that another manuscript reads "araba" for "arade." Here the reading of the main text, "arade," is adopted.

The first line, "hitogokoro," means "a person's heart." Where the preceding poems spoke of one's own life and heart, this poem turns to the heart of the lover.
In the second line, "usuhanazome no," "usu" is a pivot word meaning both that the heart is "thin" and the "pale" of "pale-blue dyeing." Pale-blue dyeing was a light indigo color, sung of as a hue that easily fades.
The third line, "karigoromo," is the hunting robe, originally worn for hunting and used as everyday dress by the nobility. The whole upper verse likens a person's heart to a thinly dyed robe.
The fourth line, "sate dani arade," means "not even staying so." It laments that even a thin heart would be enough, yet not even that will last.
The last line, "iro ya kawaran," means "will the color change?" with the particle "ya" forming a kakari-musubi with "ran." The fading of the robe's color is overlaid with a change of heart, and "dyeing," "robe," and "color" are linked as associated words.
Author: Sakon, Lady Chamberlain to Retired Emperor Sanjō
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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