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.
- Meaning
- In the autumn fields I hear the voice of a waiting cricket—might it be waiting for me? Come, I will go and visit.
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
This is a simple and lively poem.
“Matsumushi,” now called the bell cricket, is here likened to a woman who waits.
Thinking that he is being awaited, the speaker’s anticipation grows, and the poem vividly conveys his rising excitement.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- In the ruined home overgrown with grasses of longing— thinking of you, the pine-cricket’s lonely cry sounds all the more sorrowful.
- 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.
- Crimson leaves have fallen and lie piled at my dwelling— in this lonely place, for whom does the cricket cry, so many times, in waiting?
- As evening cicadas begin their cries, the day seems done— so I thought at first; yet it was but the mountain’s shadow that had fallen there.