In the ruined home
overgrown with grasses of longing—
thinking of you,
the pine-cricket’s lonely cry
sounds all the more sorrowful.

Meaning

In this abandoned home, overgrown with grasses that recall you, the cry of the pine-cricket sounds all the more sorrowful as I think of you.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)

The poem evokes a desolate, once-shared home now fallen into ruin, where the speaker waits for a lover who does not return, expressing a deeply worn and longing heart.

“Shinobu-gusa” (a type of fern) forms a pivot with “to think of you.”
“Matsumushi” refers to what is now called the bell cricket, and carries an association with “to wait,” deepening the sense of longing.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

As bush clover fades and takes on autumn colors— the cricket’s cry; like me, who cannot find sleep, are its nights filled with sorrow?
On autumn nights, the dew above all seems cold— for in every clump of grass the insects lament, their voices filled with distress.
In autumn fields, I have lost my way among paths— toward the cricket’s cry, perhaps I should make my way and seek a place to lodge the night.
In autumn fields, the waiting cricket’s voice is heard— is it for me, then? I will go and see at once, and pay a visit there tonight.

In the ruined home overgrown with grasses of longing— thinking of you, the pine-cricket’s lonely cry sounds all the more sorrowful.

In the ruined home
overgrown with grasses of longing—
thinking of you,
the pine-cricket’s lonely cry
sounds all the more sorrowful.