KKS 66
Text
紀有朋
桜色に衣はふかくそめてきん花のちりなん後の形見に
|
sakurairo ni |
Deep with the color |
Notes
- Color of cherry blossoms
- This term caused some confusion across KKS commentary history, especially with the adjective fukashi (deep) applied to it. Cherries are a very light pink, so how "deep" can the color be? Various explanations have been offered:
- This is actually a word for a Heian clothing color scheme with a white front and a blue back (this is mostly found in older commentaries)
- This actually refers to scent rather than color
- "Deep" just means doing the dyeing several times so that the color sets into the fabric, not that the color is actually deep (among the scholars who take this view is Takeoka)
- Katagiri does not address the issue at all.
Other sources:
Analysis
This poem and the next three are all concerned with worry about the upcoming scattering of the flowers, which will prepare for the book 2 poems on that topic.
Many commentaries make a big fuss about the actual logistics of the phrasing -- this applies not only to the debate over the color as given above, but also emphasizing that Heian people actually dyed clothing this color. Regardless of this, it seems most reasonable to focus more on the thought behind it rather than whether it was actually possible to do. The idea is that you will be able to preserve at least some aspect of the fallen blossoms in something that will last a while and be around you. The expression may recall the poems in the Plum section that dealt with preserving their scent on one's clothing.
Takeoka interprets this like some of the surrounding poems, where the flowers take on the image of a woman, in which case the clothing is like mourning clothing. Katagiri seems to reject this idea.
McCullough seems unimpressed with the poem's quality, saying that Tsurayuki probably included the poem in his Shinsen waka collection simply because it was by a member of the Ki clan.
