Kagiri naki na ni ou fuji no hana nareba sokoi mo shiranu iro no fukasa ka - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

限りなき名に負ふふちの花なれば
底ひも知らぬ色の深さか

Roma-ji: Kagiri naki na ni ou fuji no hana nareba sokoi mo shiranu iro no fukasa ka
English Translation: Since this wisteria
bears the name of a deep pool
that has no limit,
its color has a depth
whose bottom none can know
Meaning: Since these wisteria blossoms bear the name of a boundless deep pool, how unfathomable is the depth of their color!
Commentary: Book Three Spring Poems III 125

Headnote: "Around the last ten days of the Third Month, when the Sanjō Minister of the Right had gone to the house of Lord Kanesuke, and by the garden stream where the wisteria was in bloom, various people were drinking wine."
Hearing "fuchi," a deep pool, in the name "fuji," wisteria, the poet praises the flowers as so deep in color that no bottom can be found, since they bear the name of a boundless pool. Wisteria also recalls the name of the Fujiwara clan, and one senses praise for the prosperity of the host Kanesuke's house.
According to the headnote, it was composed in the last part of the Third Month when Fujiwara no Sadakata, the Sanjō Minister of the Right, visited the house of Fujiwara no Kanesuke and people drank wine together by the garden stream where wisteria bloomed. This poem and the next two, through 127, form a sequence exchanged at a wisteria banquet at Fujiwara no Kanesuke's house, in which guest, host and Tsurayuki each sang of the depth of the wisteria's color.
The poet, called "the Sanjō Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Sadakata. A son of Fujiwara no Takafuji, he rose to Minister of the Right and was so called because his residence was at Sanjō. He was a cousin of Fujiwara no Kanesuke, and the two were patrons of Ki no Tsurayuki and other poets.

The first line, "Kagiri naki," means "boundless," echoing "na," name, in the second line and "sokoi mo shiranu" in the fourth.
In the second line, "fuchi" is a pivot word joining "fuji," wisteria, and "fuchi," a deep, still pool. "Na ni ou" means to bear a name, and the poet reads the depth of a pool in the wisteria's name. 127 uses the same pivot word.
The third line, "hana nareba," means "since they are flowers," giving the reason.
In the fourth line, "sokoi" means bottom or limit and is an associated word for "pool": "whose bottom cannot be known."
In the last line, "ka" expresses a sigh, praising the depth of the wisteria's color. The next poem, 126, takes this up with "iro fukaku."
Author: Fujiwara no Sadakata
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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