Misebaya na Ojima no ama no sode dani mo nure ni zo nureshi iro wa kawarazu - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

見せばやな雄島の海人の袖だにも
濡れにぞ濡れし色は変はらず

Roma-ji: Misebaya na Ojima no ama no sode dani mo nure ni zo nureshi iro wa kawarazu
English Translation: How I'd like to show him!
the fisherfolk of Ojima,
even their sleeves,
though soaked and soaked again,
have never changed their color
Meaning: How I wish to show him! Even the sleeves of the fisherfolk of Ojima, soaked through and through, have never changed their color—unlike mine.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 886

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem at a poetry contest"
Like the preceding poem, it was composed as a love poem at a poetry contest. How I wish to show him, she says; even the sleeves of the fisherfolk of Ojima, soaked through and through, do not change color. Even the sleeves of the fisherfolk of Ojima, who go into the sea every day, may get wet but never change color, whereas her sleeves have changed color with the tears of love: by implication, she conveys a pain of love so great that she weeps tears of blood. The construction is effective, declaring forcefully "misebaya na" in the first line while leaving what is to be shown unsaid and only implied.
The author, "Inpumon'in no Taifu," was the daughter of Fujiwara no Nobunari. She served Inpumon'in, Princess Ryōshi, a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She was known as a prolific poet, and this very poem is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem takes as its foundation Minamoto no Shigeyuki's poem in the Goshūi Wakashū, "Matsushima ya Ojima no iso ni asarishi ama no sode koso kaku wa nureshika." Where Shigeyuki likened the wetness of his sleeve to the fisherfolk's sleeves, this poem goes a step further, saying that even the fisherfolk's sleeves do not change color.
It is a love poem from the same poetry contest as the preceding poem, 885. It begins with the same first line, "misebaya na," as 871 in this book, and 893 shares its conceit in singing of one's own sleeves by comparison with the fisherfolk's.

First line, "misebaya na": "baya" is a particle of wish and "na" an exclamatory particle, "how I wish to show him." The poem pauses here, leaving the one to be shown, and what, unspoken. It is the same first line as 871 in this book.
Second line, "Ojima no ama no": "Ojima" is one of the islands of Matsushima in Mutsu, and "ama" means fisherfolk. It is a famed place also sung in Shigeyuki's foundation poem.
Third line, "sode dani mo": "dani" is a particle of inference from the lesser, "even their sleeves." It implies "how much more my own sleeves."
Fourth line, "nure ni zo nureshi": an emphatic expression repeating the same verb, "soaked and soaked again." "Zo" is an emphatic particle that binds with the attributive "shi."
Fifth line, "iro wa kawarazu": "the color does not change," closing with the unspoken sense that her own sleeves have changed color with tears of blood.
Author: Inpumon-in no Taifu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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