Tsukikusa ni koromo wa suran asatsuyu ni nurete no nochi wa utsuroinu tomo - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月草に衣は摺らん朝露に
濡れての後はうつろひぬとも

Roma-ji: Tsukikusa ni koromo wa suran asatsuyu ni nurete no nochi wa utsuroinu tomo
English Translation: With the dayflower
I will dye my robe in print,
though in morning dew,
once it has been drenched and wet,
its color fades and passes.
Meaning: I will dye my robe with dayflowers, even though, once wet with the morning dew, its color will fade away.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 474

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says he will dye his robe with dayflowers, though once soaked by the morning dew the color will fade. Overlaying the fickle human heart on the fleeting dye of the dayflower, he expresses a resolve to give his heart nonetheless. Taking over the word "moon" from "the moon's laurel" of the preceding poem, 473, in "tsukikusa," the dayflower, it begins a run of poems on robes that continues through 478 in this book.
The author, written as Hitomaro, is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet of the Asuka period, he is revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. The Shūishū includes many Man'yōshū poems under his name.
A poem of almost the same form appears without an author's name in Book Seven of the Man'yōshū.

First line, "tsukikusa ni," means "with the dayflower," an old name for the dayflower. It carries over the word "moon" from "the moon's laurel" of the preceding poem.
Second line, "koromo wa suran," means "I will print-dye my robe," with "n" an auxiliary of intention. The poem breaks here.
Third line, "asatsuyu ni," means "in the morning dew."
Fourth line, "nurete no nochi wa," means "after it is wet."
Final line, "utsuroinu tomo," means "even if it fades," with "nu" a perfective auxiliary and "tomo" a concessive supposition. Through inversion it adds a condition to the resolve of the upper verse.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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