Yuisomete nareshi tabusa no komurasaki omowazu ima mo asakariki to wa

結ひ初めて馴れしたぶさの濃紫
思はず今も浅かりきとは

Roma-ji: Yuisomete nareshi tabusa no komurasaki omowazu ima mo asakariki to wa
English Translation: Tied for the first time,
then grown familiar, the cord
of deep purple—
not even now do I think
that the colour was shallow.
Meaning: Like the deep purple cord that bound my topknot when it was first tied and has grown so familiar, I do not think, even now, that our bond was ever shallow.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 608

Headnote: "There was someone with whom I had secretly exchanged words of love; when they said they would go far away"
When someone with whom he had secretly shared his heart said they would go far away, the poet answered that, like the deep purple cord first tied in his topknot at his coming of age, their bond was deep, and even now he does not think it was shallow.
The Ruijū text and the text transmitted by Teika differ in one letter in line 4.

Line 1 means "first tied," referring to the first binding of the hair at the coming-of-age ceremony.
Line 2 means "of the familiar topknot."
Line 3 means "deep purple," the colour of the cord, with a break after the line; the depth of colour carries the depth of the bond.
Line 4 means "I do not think, even now," in inversion.
Line 5 means "that it was shallow," setting "shallow" against "deep" in line 3.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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