住吉の浅沢小野のかきつはた
衣に摺り付け着む日知らずも
衣に摺り付け着む日知らずも
- Roma-ji
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Suminoe no asazawa ono no kakitsubata kinu ni suritsuke kimu hi shirazu mo
- English Translation
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At Suminoe
in Asazawa's meadows
the rabbit-ear iris—
rubbing its dye into my robe,
the day I'll wear it, I know not
- Meaning
- The irises of the Asazawa meadows in Suminoe—when will the day come that I rub their color into my robe and wear it? I cannot tell.
- Commentary
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Book Seven Allegorical Poems 1361
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
The poet says he cannot tell when the day will come to rub the irises of the Asazawa meadows into his robe and wear it. The lovely iris stands for the woman who draws him, and wearing its color for making her his wife, lamenting a love with no certain day of union.
It is one of the poems under the heading "On Flowers." The figure of rubbing a flower's color into a robe is akin to that of dyeing with the karaai flowers in the next poem. The poet is unknown.
The first line, "At Suminoe," names Sumiyoshi in Settsu.
The second line names the meadows of Asazawa in Sumiyoshi; "o" is a prefix.
The third line, "the rabbit-ear iris," gives the figure for a beautiful woman.
The fourth line, "rubbing its dye into my robe," stands for making her one's own.
The final line, "the day I'll wear it, I know not," ends with the exclamatory "mo."
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Iki no o ni omoeru ware o yamajisa no hana ni ka kimi ga utsuroinuramu
- Next Poem
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Aki saraba utsushi mo semu to waga makishi karaai no hana o tare ka tsumikemu