年を経て頼むかひなし常磐なる
松の梢も色変はりゆく
松の梢も色変はりゆく
- Roma-ji
-
Toshi o hete tanomu kai nashi tokiwa naru matsu no kozue mo iro kawariyuku
- English Translation
-
Through the passing years
there's no use in trusting now—
even the pine,
evergreen, its very tips
are changing in their hue
- Meaning
- All these years of trusting have been in vain; even the tips of the ever-green pine are changing their color.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1121
Headnote: "When the tips of the pine at the house of someone I had been intimate with had turned red."
The poet says that all the years of trusting have been in vain, for even the tips of the evergreen pine are changing color. Seeing a pine that should never change turn red, the poet laments the change of heart in one believed to be constant.
According to the headnote, it was composed when the tips of the pine at the house of someone the poet had been intimate with had turned red.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Toshi o hete," means "through the passing years." The first line of 1105 in this book opens with the same "toshi o hete"; that poem sings of water that never grows muddy and this one of a pine that changes color, pairing the unchanging with the changing.
The second line, "tanomu kai nashi," means "there is no use in trusting." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "tokiwa naru," means "ever-unchanging," describing the evergreen pine.
The fourth line, "matsu no kozue mo," means "even the tips of the pine," with "mo" conveying that even what should never change has changed.
The last line, "iro kawariyuku," means "are changing color," likening the other's change of heart to the reddening pine.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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