The river wind now
blows with a coolness—perhaps
with the rising waves,
along with their surging, too,
autumn itself comes to stand?

Meaning

How cool the river wind is—does autumn too arise together with the waves that surge upon the shore?

Commentary

Book IV, Autumn Poems I

Composed on the day of the Beginning of Autumn, when courtiers strolled along the banks of the Kamo River.

The cool river breeze evokes the sense of autumn’s arrival. The poem plays on the word "tatsu" (to rise/stand), linking the rising of waves with the "standing" (beginning) of autumn.

Ki no Tsurayuki, of lower rank than the courtiers, accompanied them on this outing. On such elegant excursions, composing poetry was customary, and poets like him would attend.

Author

Ki no Tsurayuki

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

Where summer and autumn pass each other in the sky, along that pathway— does from one side, perhaps, blow a wind already cool and clear?
Though with my own eyes I cannot clearly discern that autumn has come, it is in the sound of wind that I am made aware of it.
My beloved’s robe— its hem turned back by the wind; how strangely it blows, the first wind of autumn that comes upon us now.
Only yesterday we planted the tender rice— yet before I knew, the rice leaves sway in the fields, and autumn winds begin to blow.

The river wind now blows with a coolness—perhaps with the rising waves, along with their surging, too, autumn itself comes to stand?

The river wind now
blows with a coolness—perhaps
with the rising waves,
along with their surging, too,
autumn itself comes to stand?