#009 花の色は

花の色は
うつりにけりな
いたづらに
わが身世にふる
ながめせしまに

Hana no iro wa utsuri ni keri na itazura ni waga mi yo ni furu nagame seshi ma ni

Ono no Komachi 

The flowers' blooms are washed away: in vain I spend my length of days gazing on the endless rain. (trans. Köy Deli )

flowers of love can change so much the trick as my body grows old is just to watch the rain (trans. Jane Reichhold)

Crib

As the flowers' are swept away beneath the endless fall of rain, so my beauty fades as I grow older; our vain display, for nothing.

Parsing

hana no iro wa
flowers | of | colour/love | topic marker
utsuri ni keri na
change | in | (-ed) or (!) | emp. particle
itazura ni
vain | in
wagami yo ni furu
myself/my body | world/life/age | in | falling/growing old
nagame seshi ma ni
gaze at/long spell of rain | did do | period (of time) | in

Devices

Metaphor

The image of fading/withered flowers acts as a metaphor for the narrators own fading beauty.

Kakekotoba (Pivots)

The third line (in vain, vainly, for nothing) may be read as a pivot line, modifying the couplets both above and below (however, there is a emphatic final particle (na) indicating a semantic break at end of L2).

There are two pivot words in the final couplet:

furu - which may be read as either to fall or to age; and
nagame - both to gaze and long (spell of) rains.

Anastrophe ( tōchihō / とうちほう)

Inversion, the first two lines grammatically come at the end; that is, the flowers of the first line are effected by the rains of the last line.

hana	花	flower
No	の	Genitive particle
iro	色	Colour, complexion, appearance, tint; lust, desire, love, lover
wa	は	Nominal particle; is, is the, are; phrase separation; topic marker
utsuri	うつり	To fade, wither; shifted, moved, changed; reflected
ni	に	Locative particle (in, with, by); adverb suffix (-ly); past tense aux.
keri	けり	Exclamation of realization
na	な	emotional or emphatic particle of sentence end.
Itazura –ni	いたづらに [いたずらに]	Mischief, tease, prank, trick; with adverbial  -ni Unnecessarily; in vain; vainly; for nothing; Mischievously;
Waga -mi	わが身	myself, oneself; my (waga = wa/I, ga/genitive) body (mi)
yo		Night, world, life, existence; age, generation; yo ni – the world, in the world, into the world.
furu	ふる	To fall  down, falling, shake, whip; to pour down (as rain, snow, hail); to grow/become old/worn out
nagame	ながめ	Long spell of rain, continuous rain; longish; to look at, glance at, to view, to gaze at, watching (nagameru)
Se -shi		Do (with past tense aux. –shi)
Ma (-ni)	まに	Interval, spot, place, period of time; ma ni (in period, place) – between, during, among the