わが恋はあひそめてこそまさりけれ
飾磨のかちの色ならねども
飾磨のかちの色ならねども
- Roma-ji
-
Waga koi wa aisomete koso masarikere Shikama no kachi no iro naranedomo
- English Translation
-
This love of mine has
grown only deeper since we
first began to meet,
though it is not the color
of Shikama's indigo
- Meaning
- My love has grown only deeper since we first began to meet, though it is not the indigo of Shikama, which darkens with every dyeing.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Love Poems II 234
The poet says his love has grown stronger since he began meeting the beloved than it was before. Invoking the kachi dye of Shikama, which deepens each time the cloth is dipped in indigo, and playing "aisome" (first meeting) against "aizome" (indigo dyeing), he likens his deepening love to a deepening color.
Poem 230 of Book Seven also uses the kachi dye of Shikama as a preface to sing of love's intensity, so that the close of the first book of love poems and the opening of the second are linked by the same famous dye.
The first line, "waga koi wa" (my love), sets the speaker's love as the topic with "wa."
The second line, "aisomete koso," is a pivot word joining "ai-some" (to begin meeting) with "ai-zome" (to dye with indigo), and singles out the time after meeting with the emphatic "koso."
The third line, "masarikere," closes "koso" with the perfective form of the exclamatory "keri," a kakari-musubi with a break after the third line, expressing the realization that love has grown stronger.
The fourth line, "Shikama no kachi no," refers to the deep indigo kachi dyed at Shikama in Harima Province; since it is made by repeated dipping in indigo, it is an associated word for the indigo dyeing of the second line.
The final line, "iro naranedomo," adds with the concessive "domo" that it is not the color of kachi, overlaying love's deepening on the deepening of a dye.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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