色見えで移ろふものは世の中の
人の心の花にぞありける
人の心の花にぞありける
- Roma-ji
-
Iro miede utsurou mono wa yo no naka no hito no kokoro no hana ni zo arikeru
- English Translation
-
That which fades away
without showing any change
in its outward hue
is the flower of the heart
of a person in this world
- Meaning
- The thing that fades without any change of color showing is the flower of the human heart in the world of love.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 797
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
One of Ono no Komachi's best-known poems, it says that while a flower's fading shows in its color, the flower of the human heart fades without any visible change. Contrasting the visible flower with the unseen flower of the heart, it sharply captures the grief of a lover whose heart changes before one knows it. Like poem 795 it sings of the fickleness of "hearts in this world," but deepens flower-dyed color into the invisible flower of the heart.
Ono no Komachi is by one theory the daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, a district official in Dewa, but her lineage is uncertain. She is thought to have served at court in the reigns of Emperors Ninmyō and Montoku, and is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
In the first line de is a negative conjunctive: "without the color showing." It presents the absence of visible change.
The second line layers the fading of color with a change of heart, with wa setting the topic.
The third line refers to relations between men and women, the same phrase as the first line of poem 795.
The fourth line names the lover's heart, modifying "flower" in the last line. The fourth line of the next poem is also "of the human heart."
The last line likens the heart to a flower, with zo resolved by the attributive of keri. Against the visible flower, it reveals the unseen flower of the heart.
- Author
- Ono no Komachi
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Kokoro koso utate nikukere somezaraba utsurou koto mo oshikaramashi ya
- Next Poem
-
Ware nomi ya yo o uguisu to nakiwabimu hito no kokoro no hana to chirinaba