My heart is in disarray, like the tangled patterns of Michinoku's shinobu-dyed cloth. And whose fault is that? No one's but yours.
The Riverside Minister of the Left is Minamoto no Tōru (822-895), a son of Emperor Saga who was removed from the imperial line and granted the surname Minamoto; he is one of the models for Hikaru Genji, the hero of The Tale of Genji. He was called the Riverside Minister of the Left because he lived in the Kawara-no-in, a lavish mansion of unbounded luxury, and he is none other than the master of that ruined great house we sang about in No. 47, "Yaemugura." "Shinobu mojizuri" is a rubbed dyeing technique from the Shinobu district of Mutsu, in the far north: cloth is laid over a stone and rubbed with grasses, and the result is a twisted, tangled pattern. He overlaid onto that tangled pattern a heart thrown into disorder by love. Kokin Wakashū, Love IV 724.
"Like the tangled pattern of Shinobu rubbed-dye from Mutsu, my heart has begun to fall into disorder. And whose fault is that? Not mine, surely (it's yours)." A somewhat childish, thoroughly human poem that blames the turmoil of love on someone else. A man born an imperial prince who rose to be a minister sulks before love, "it's your fault." That endearing quality is what has survived a thousand years.
We made the original poem's very human sulk, "whose fault do you think this is?" over the tangled pattern of the rubbed dye, the core of this song. It depicts, in modern daily life, the comedy of a man whose orderly routine comes undone with love, growing more tangled the harder he tries to straighten it out, and the chorus renders the original poem's answer directly into modern words: "It's not my fault, it's yours." Like a dyed pattern that is beautiful precisely because it stays twisted, a heart in disorder does not need to be fixed; it is a courtship song of unabashed defiance.
陸奥の（古今集/河原左大臣・百人一首14番）Garu JP
アイロンかけたシャツが しわになる
まっすぐ歩けた道で つまずく
規則正しかった 僕の毎日が
君に会ってから ほどけていく
整えようとするほど 乱れていく
これは誰の せいだと思う？
陸奥の しのぶもぢずり 誰ゆゑに
乱れそめにし われならなくに
乱れ始めた この心は
僕のせいじゃない 君のせいだ
一度染まったら 二度と戻れない
君の色に 染まってしまった
着信ひとつで 予定が飛んで
返事ひとつで 眠れなくなる
思ってたのと ちがう毎日
でも戻りたいとは 思わないんだ
ほどけた糸は 結び直せない
これは誰の せいだと思う？
陸奥の しのぶもぢずり 誰ゆゑに
乱れそめにし われならなくに
千年前の 都の人も
恋に乱れて 人のせいにした
偉い大臣も 僕と同じ
君のせいだと 歌にした
みちのくの 染めの模様は
ねじれたままで 美しい
乱れた心も きっとそうだ
直さなくていい このままでいい
陸奥の しのぶもぢずり 誰ゆゑに
乱れそめにし われならなくに
乱れ始めた この心は
僕のせいじゃない 君のせいだ
責任とって そばにいてよ
乱れたままの 僕のそばに
乱れそめにし……
われならなくに
Michinoku no (Kokinshu / Kawara no Sadaijin, Hyakunin Isshu No. 14) Garu JP
The shirt I ironed gets wrinkled
I trip on a road I used to walk just fine
My well-ordered everyday life
has been unraveling since I met you
The more I try to straighten up, the more I tangle
Whose fault do you think this is?
Like the tangled dye of Michinoku's shinobu cloth —
who made my heart begin to tangle? Not I.
This heart that started to unravel —
it's not my fault, it's yours
Once dyed, there is no going back
I've been dyed in your color
One call from you and my plans fly away
One reply from you and I can't sleep
Not the days I had imagined
But I don't wish to go back, you know
A thread undone can't be retied
Whose fault do you think this is?
Like the tangled dye of Michinoku's shinobu cloth —
who made my heart begin to tangle? Not I.
A thousand years ago, in the capital,
people tangled up in love blamed someone too
Even a great minister, just like me,
wrote a poem saying: it's your fault
The dyed patterns of Michinoku
are beautiful just as they twist
A tangled heart must be the same
No need to fix it — it's fine as it is
Like the tangled dye of Michinoku's shinobu cloth —
who made my heart begin to tangle? Not I.
This heart that started to unravel —
it's not my fault, it's yours
So take responsibility — stay by my side
by the side of me, tangled as I am
Who made my heart begin to tangle……
It was not I.