90
IMPU MON-IN NO ŌSUKE
Misebayana
Ojima no ama no
Sode dani no
Nure ni zo nureshi
Iro wa kawaraji.
THE CHIEF VICE-OFFICIAL IN ATTENDANCE
ON THE DOWAGER EMPRESS IMPU
The fisher’s clothes, though cheap, withstand
The drenching they receive;
But see! my floods of tears have blurred
The colours of my sleeve,
As for thy love I grieve.
The writer is said to have been one of the Fujiwara family, and to have died in the year 1210. Ojima is an island in the Inland Sea.
In the last line the word iro can mean both ‘colour’ and ‘love’; so that the meaning is, the writer‘s love will remain as constant as the colour of the fisher’s clothes, even though drenched with salt water. In connexion with this word iro, it may be mentioned that a crimson maple leaf, when sent by a lady to her lover, is a gentle hint that she wishes to see him no more; the meaning being, that as the colour (iro) of the leaf has changed, so her love (iro) has changed also.