染河を渡らん人のいかでかは
色になるてふ事のなからん
色になるてふ事のなからん
- Roma-ji
-
Somekawa o wataran hito no ikadeka wa iro ni naru chō koto no nakaran
- English Translation
-
Whoever must ford
the river called Somekawa,
how could it ever be
that they would not, as they say,
come out dyed in love's colors?
- Meaning
- How could anyone who crosses the Dyeing River fail to be dyed in its colors, to become, as they say, a lover?
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1234
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet asks how one who crosses the Somekawa, the Dyeing River, could fail to be dyed in its colors. Letting the name of the Somekawa in Tsukushi echo with "dyeing," it lightly declares that anyone crossing it is bound to take on color, that is, to become a lover, making an excuse for one steeped in love.
The author, Ariwara no Narihira, was a son of Prince Abo and is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. He is taken to be the hero of the Tales of Ise and is known for his poem "chihayaburu" in the Hyakunin Isshu.
It appears in episode sixty-one of the Tales of Ise as the poem of a man visiting Tsukushi.
First line, "Somekawa o," means "the Somekawa" in Chikuzen, the river's name echoing "somu," to dye.
Second line, "wataran hito no," means "one who would cross it," with "n" an auxiliary softening the statement.
Third line, "ikadeka wa," means "how could it be," a rhetorical question answering "ran" in the final line.
Fourth line, "iro ni naru chō," means "to become colored, as they say," with "iro" layering the color of dye and the color of love.
Final line, "koto no nakaran," means "that it should not happen," implying that it surely does, with "ran" the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary.
- Author
- Ariwara no Narihira
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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