Yo no naka no arishi ni mo arazu nariyukeba namida sae koso iro kawarikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中のありしにもあらずなりゆけば
涙さへこそ色変はりけれ

Roma-ji: Yo no naka no arishi ni mo arazu nariyukeba namida sae koso iro kawarikere
English Translation: Since the world has turned
to something unlike the world
that it was before,
even my falling tears, it seems,
have changed their very hue
Meaning: Because the world goes on becoming something other than what it once was, even my tears have changed their color, turned crimson with grief.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1027

Headnote: "Composed in a hundred-poem sequence on being ashamed of my fortune"
This is one of a hundred-poem sequence expressing shame at his own ill fortune. Since the world is becoming other than it was, even my tears have changed color, he says. With the world's changes his own circumstances have become unlike what they were, and he voices the depth of his grief through the image of crimson tears, tears turned the color of blood by sorrow.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori, Lord," was a son of Minamoto no Tsunenobu. He was active at the center of the poetic circle of Emperor Horikawa and, by order of Retired Emperor Shirakawa, compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū. He wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
It is one of the poems of grievance continuing from 1024 of this book. In singing of a changing world it is also close to "nanigoto mo kawariyuku meru yo no naka ni" in 1031.

First line, "yo no naka no": "the world," including both the ways of the world and his own circumstances. It answers "yo no naka ni" in the third line of 1031 of this book.
Second line, "arishi ni mo arazu": "arishi" means the former state, "unlike what it was." It is a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
Third line, "nariyukeba": "ba" expresses a fixed condition, "since it is becoming so."
Fourth line, "namida sae koso": "sae" is an additive particle, "even my tears." "Koso" is an emphatic binding particle closing with "kere" in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "iro kawarikere": "kere" is the realis of the exclamatory "keri," "have changed their color," expressing crimson tears of blood shed in grief.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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