Iro mo naki kokoro o hito ni someshi yori utsurowamu to wa omōenaku ni - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

色もなき心を人に染めしより
移ろはむとは思ほえなくに

Roma-ji: Iro mo naki kokoro o hito ni someshi yori utsurowamu to wa omōenaku ni
English Translation: Since the day I dyed
my heart, once without a hue,
in the shade of you,
that it could ever fade away
never once has crossed my mind.
Meaning: Ever since I dyed my colorless heart in your hue, I have never imagined that it could fade.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 729

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Having dyed his once colorless heart in the beloved's color, the speaker cannot imagine that the color will ever fade; while singing of his unchanging heart, the poem lets slip unease at the lover's change of heart. The conceit of treating the heart as cloth dyed by love is deftly handled.
It shares the imagery of "dyeing" and "color" with "hatsuhanazome no iro fukaku" in 723 of this book, and answers the changing "color" of the heart sung of in 725 and 726 from the side of the speaker's own unchanging heart.
The author, "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki. The son of Ki no Mochiyuki, he was one of the compilers of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface; after serving as governor of Tosa he wrote the Tosa Diary.

The first line, "iro mo naki," means "colorless," standing for a heart undyed before it knew love.
The second line, "kokoro o hito ni," means "my heart, in you."
The third line, "someshi yori," means "ever since I dyed it," likening the heart's taking on the beloved's color to the dyeing of cloth.
The fourth line, "utsurowamu to wa," means "that it would fade," likening a change of heart to fading color.
The final line, "omōenaku ni," means "I cannot think so," "naku ni" expressing an adversative exclamation.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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