Yo no naka no hito ni kokoro o someshikaba kusaba ni iro mo mieji to zo omou - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中の人に心を染めしかば
草葉に色も見えじとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Yo no naka no hito ni kokoro o someshikaba kusaba ni iro mo mieji to zo omou
English Translation: Since to all the folk
who live within this world of ours
I have dyed my heart,
on the grasses, even their hue
will not show, it seems to me.
Meaning: Since I have dyed my heart in feeling for all the people of the world, I think its color will not show on the grasses' leaves.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1117

Headnote: "Reply"
The poet replies that since he has given his heart to the people of the world at large, its color will not show through the reddening of mere grass leaves. In answer to the preceding poem, 1116, which said she saw his heart in the reddened lower leaves of bush clover, he lightly turns it aside, saying that his heart is already dyed with the world's people and no color will appear on the grasses.
The author, written as "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki, the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "yo no naka no," means "of the world."
Second line, "hito ni kokoro o," means "my heart toward people."
Third line, "someshikaba," means "since I have dyed it," with "kokoro o somu" meaning to set one's heart deeply, forming associated words with "iro," color, in the fourth line. "Shika" is the perfective form of the past auxiliary "ki."
Fourth line, "kusaba ni iro mo," means "even the color of my heart on the grasses," taking up "the lower leaves of the autumn bush clover" of the preceding poem, 1116.
Final line, "mieji to zo omou," means "I think it will not show," with "ji" an auxiliary of negative conjecture and the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive form "omou." It answers the final line of the preceding poem, "kokoro o zo miru," with "mieji."
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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