Omowaji to iiteshi mono o hanezuiro no utsuroiyasuki aga kokoro kamo

思はじと言ひてしものをはねず色の
うつろひやすき我が心かも

Roma-ji: Omowaji to iiteshi mono o hanezuiro no utsuroiyasuki aga kokoro kamo
English Translation: "I will think no more,"
so I said, and said it firm;
yet like hanezu hue,
quick to fade and change its tone,
fickle is this heart of mine
Meaning: I declared I would think of you no more, yet my heart is as quick to change as the fading hanezu color.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 657

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six poems by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue"
She said she would think of him no more, yet her heart wavers again, and she laments that it is as changeable as hanezu color. The easily fading hanezu hue stands for the instability of her own heart. Where the preceding poem doubted his words, this one looks at the unsteadiness of her own heart.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She left many poems in the Man'yōshū and is esteemed as a leading woman poet.

First line, "'I will think no more,'" uses ji, negative intention: that I would not think of you.
Second line, "so I said, and said it firm," uses mono o for concession: though I said so.
Third line, "yet like hanezu hue," runs to six syllables; since the hanezu flower's color fades easily, it is a pillow word for utsurou, "to change."
Fourth line, "quick to fade and change its tone," means apt to change.
Fifth line, "fickle is this heart of mine," means such is my heart, with the exclamatory kamo.
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Manyoshu
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