Sode no iro wa hito no tou made nari mo seyo fukaki omoi o kimi shi tanomaba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

袖の色は人の問ふまでなりもせよ
深き思ひを君し頼まば

Roma-ji: Sode no iro wa hito no tou made nari mo seyo fukaki omoi o kimi shi tanomaba
English Translation: Let the color of
my sleeves grow until others
ask me what it means,
if only you will trust
in the deepness of my love
Meaning: Let my sleeves be stained so deep that people ask me why, so long as you will put your trust in the depth of my love.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 745

Headnote: "On the heart of love, from a hundred-poem sequence"
A poem on the heart of love from a hundred-poem sequence. Let the color of my sleeves become such that people ask, she says, if only you will trust in my deep love. She resolves that the sleeves dyed crimson by the tears of love may be noticed and her hidden love made known, so long as he believes in the depth of her feeling.
The author, "Princess Shokushi," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as Kamo Priestess in her youth and studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei. One of the leading women poets of the Shin Kokin era, she has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Where 740 of this book wished to keep the color of tears from others, this poem says the color of the sleeves may be questioned, so that their attitudes to hidden love are opposed. It also echoes "the color of tears" in 706 and 721.

First line, "sode no iro wa": "the color of my sleeves dyed by tears." It has six syllables, one too many. It echoes "the color of tears" in 740 of this book.
Second line, "hito no tou made": "until others wonder and ask."
Third line, "nari mo seyo": "seyo" is imperative, expressing permission, "let it become so." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with what follows.
Fourth line, "fukaki omoi o": "my deep love."
Fifth line, "kimi shi tanomaba": "shi" is an emphatic particle, "if only you will trust in it."
Author: Princess Shokushi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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