別れてふことは色にもあらなくに
心にしみてわびしかるらむ
心にしみてわびしかるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Wakare chō koto wa iro ni mo aranaku ni kokoro ni shimite wabishikaru ramu
- English Translation
-
This thing called parting
is not a color, and yet
why does it
soak into my heart
and leave me so forlorn?
- Meaning
- This thing we call parting is not a dye or a color, and yet why does it soak so deeply into my heart and leave me so desolate?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Parting Poems 381
Headnote: "Composed when parting from someone"
Likening the sorrow of parting to a color, the poem asks why parting, which is no color, should soak into the heart like dye and leave one desolate. It is a rational expression that captures an invisible emotion through the dyeing words "color" and "soak."
The author, "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface.
The first line, "this thing called parting," uses chō, a contraction of to iu, to take up parting as an abstract object.
The second line, "not a color," uses iro for color, and the particle mo shows that it is not even a color.
The third line, "and yet," uses naku ni, "though it is not," carrying a concessive sense into the question of the lower verses.
The fourth line, "soak into my heart," uses shimu for dye soaking in, forming an associated word with "color" in the second line.
The last line, "leave me so forlorn," uses ramu for conjecture about causes, wondering why it should be so desolate.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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