A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 91 of 101

90. The Chief Vice-Official in Attendance on the Dowager Empress Impu: Impu Mon-

90

The Chief Vice-official in Attendance on the Dowager Empress Impu

IMPU MON-IN NO ŌSUKE

Misebayana Ojima no ama no Sode dani no Nure ni zo nureshi Iro wa kawaraji.

THE fisher’s clothes, though cheap, withstand The drenching they receive; But see I 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.