千々の色に移ろふらめど知らなくに
心し秋の紅葉ならねば
心し秋の紅葉ならねば
- Roma-ji
-
Chiji no iro ni utsuroramedo shiranaku ni kokoro shi aki no momiji naraneba
- English Translation
-
In a thousand hues
your heart may change, I suppose,
but I cannot know,
for a heart is not the leaves
that turn color in the fall.
- Meaning
- Your heart may be changing into a thousand colors, but I cannot tell, for a heart is not like the autumn leaves we can see.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 726
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The lover's heart may be changing through many colors like autumn leaves, but since a heart is not a visible leaf, there is no way to know—so the poem laments. Likening the shifting colors of leaves to a change of heart, it expresses with intellectual poise the unease of a heart that cannot be seen.
Taking up "iro koto ni naru" in the preceding poem, it likens the changing "color" of the heart to autumn leaves. It also resonates with "akikaze ni yama no konoha no utsuroeba" in 714 of this book in overlaying autumn leaves with a change of heart.
The first line, "chiji no iro ni," means "into a thousand colors," showing the variety of autumn hues; it has six syllables, one more than usual.
The second line, "utsuroramedo," means "though it may be changing," the perfective form of the present conjectural "ramu" with the concessive "do."
The third line, "shiranaku ni," means "yet I do not know," and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "kokoro shi aki no," means "a heart is not autumn's," "shi" being an emphatic particle.
The final line, "momiji naraneba," means "since it is not autumn leaves," giving the reason for the third line in inverted order.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Omou yori ika ni seyo to ka akikaze ni nabiku asaji no iro koto ni naru
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Ama no sumu sato no shirube ni aranaku ni uramimu to nomi hito no iuramu