Onajiku wa kasanete shiore nureginu sate mo hosu beki nakina naraji o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

同じくは重ねてしほれぬれ衣
さても干すべきなき名ならじを

Roma-ji: Onajiku wa kasanete shiore nureginu sate mo hosu beki nakina naraji o
English Translation: If it's all the same,
let it be soaked through again,
this wet robe of blame:
this is no false rumor that
could ever be dried out now
Meaning: If it comes to the same thing, then let this wet robe of false blame be soaked through once more. It is not, after all, a groundless rumor that could ever be dried out and cleared.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 695

Headnote: "Sent when a woman reproached him that a false rumor had arisen about them"
Sent when a woman reproached him that a groundless rumor had arisen about them. If it is all the same, he says, let the wet robe be soaked through again; it is not a false name that could be dried out anyway. Likening the baseless rumor to a "wet robe," a false charge, he turns her reproach on its head and courts her: since the rumor cannot be cleared, let them become lovers in truth and soak the robe again.
The author, "Takafusa, Commander of the Left Gate Guards," is Fujiwara no Takafusa. The son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Takasue, he took a daughter of Taira no Kiyomori as his wife and served as Commander of the Left Gate Guards, among other posts.
The next poem, 696, is the woman's reply to this poem, and the two form an exchange. Poem 659 of this book also turns on a "nakina," a groundless rumor.

First line, "onajiku wa": "if it is all the same."
Second line, "kasanete shiore": "shiore" is the imperative of "shioru," "to be soaked through," "be soaked again."
Third line, "nureginu": combines a wet robe and a false charge or groundless rumor. The poem pauses here. It is the same word as the third line of the next poem.
Fourth line, "sate mo hosu beki": "that could be dried as it is." "Hosu," "to dry," a related word to the wet robe, overlays clearing the rumor.
Fifth line, "nakina naraji o": "nakina" is a groundless rumor, "ji" the negative conjectural, and "o" exclamatory, "it is surely no groundless rumor." It shares the word with "nakina ya" in the fourth line of 659.
Author: Fujiwara no Takafusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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