Iro to ieba koki mo usuki mo tanomarezu yamato nadeshiko chiru yo nashi ya wa - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

色と言へば濃きも薄きも頼まれず
山となでしこ散る世なしやは

Roma-ji: Iro to ieba koki mo usuki mo tanomarezu yamato nadeshiko chiru yo nashi ya wa
English Translation: As for color, whether
deep or pale, it cannot be
trusted, not at all;
even the Yamato pink, is there
never a time when it must fall?
Meaning: As for color, neither deep nor pale can be trusted. Even the Yamato pink—is there ever a time when it does not fall?
Commentary: Book Four Summer Poems 202

Headnote: "Reply."
To the one who said in the preceding poem that the depth of his heart would show in its color, she replies that color, whether deep or pale, cannot be trusted, and that even the Yamato pink must fall. Saying that a heart that shows in color also fades, she lightly doubts his vow.
It forms an exchange with the preceding poem, 201.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the author as "yomibito mo," but it is treated here as anonymous.

The first line, "Iro to ieba," means "as for color," taking up the last line of the preceding poem, "iro ni mienan."
The second line, "koki mo usuki mo," means "deep or pale," also expressing the depth or shallowness of feeling.
In the third line, "re" is the irrealis form of the potential auxiliary "ru" and "zu" is negative: "cannot be trusted." The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "yamato nadeshiko," names the Yamato pink, taking up the pink called "tokonatsu" in the preceding poem by another name.
In the last line, "ya wa" is rhetorical: "is there no time when it falls? Indeed there is." It denies the sense of the name "tokonatsu," ever-summer, in the preceding poem.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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