Overgrown with mugwort,
In this desolate dwelling,
What makes it fearful
Is that, even for a time,
Demons come swarming here.

Meaning

What makes this desolate house, overgrown with mugwort, so unpleasant is that, even if only for a short while, demons come swarming here.

Commentary

58. How Desolate It Has Become

A considerate and amorous man built a house and lived in the former capital, Nagaoka.
Beside it was a residence of a prince, where several fairly attractive women had come. Since it was on the outskirts of the capital and felt like the countryside, the man was preparing to reap the rice in his field. Seeing this, the women said, "What an elegant task for such a refined man," and gathered, entering his house. The man fled to the inner rooms and hid.

One of the women recited, "How desolate it has become—alas, for how many generations has this been a dwelling? The one who once lived here does not even come to visit," and they sat down together near the prince’s residence.
This poem was composed by the man and presented to the women.
Originally, demons referred to the spirits of the dead, but in time the word came to mean beings that bring misfortune to people. In old tales, when evil spirits approach a man, they sometimes appear in the form of beautiful women.
By "demons," the man jokingly suggests that the women are beautiful beings in the guise of demons, yet it seems he did not hold a favorable impression of them.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

Overgrown with mugwort, In this desolate dwelling, What makes it fearful Is that, even for a time, Demons come swarming here.

Overgrown with mugwort,
In this desolate dwelling,
What makes it fearful
Is that, even for a time,
Demons come swarming here.