Ide hito wa koto nomi zo yoki tsukikusa no utsushigokoro wa iro koto ni shite - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いで人は言のみぞよき月草の
うつし心は色ことにして

Roma-ji: Ide hito wa koto nomi zo yoki tsukikusa no utsushigokoro wa iro koto ni shite
English Translation: Ah, that one's fine words
are all that's good; like dayflower
whose dye soon fades,
the true heart that ought to hold
has taken on another hue.
Meaning: Ah, only his words are fine; his true heart, like dye from the dayflower that fades so quickly, has taken on a different color from what he says.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 711

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The speaker laments that the lover's words are fine only on the surface, while his true heart, fickle as dayflower dye, differs from what he says. The poem overlays the quickly fading dye of the dayflower with a heart prone to change.
Like the mockery of unchanging "koto no ha" in 688 of this book, it takes as its theme the gap between words and heart, leading into the poems on "falsehood" in the next two, 712 and 713.

In the first line, "ide hito wa," "ide" is an interjection meaning "why" or "come now," conveying a tone that pushes the other away with a sigh.
The second line, "koto nomi zo yoki," means "only the words are good," the particle "zo" closed by the attributive "yoki"; the poem pauses here.
The third line, "tsukikusa no," is the old name of the dayflower, and since dye from its blossoms fades easily, it leads to "utsushi" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "utsushigokoro wa," "utsushi" is a pivot word joining "utsushi" (color transferring, fading) and "utsushi" (sane, true), as in "the true heart."
The final line, "iro koto ni shite," means "being of a different color," "koto" meaning "different," likening a heart that differs from its words to a color.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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