On autumn fields lie
drops of white dew—are they gems?
threaded one by one
upon the slender strands spun
of a spider’s woven thread.
- Meaning
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The white dew lying upon the grasses of the autumn field—are they jewels, strung one by one upon the threads of a spider’s web?
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
Composed for a poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koretada.
The scene of white dew clinging to the spider’s threads stretched among the grasses is likened to jewels threaded upon a string.
- Author
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Funya no Asayasu
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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If one were to break
and take it, surely it would
fall away at once—
on autumn bush clover boughs
white dew lies, bending the stems.
-
Though bush clover blooms
may be falling in the fields,
through dew and white frost
I will go on, drenched as I am,
even though the night grows late.
-
Drawn by but the name,
I only plucked you, maiden-flower—
speak not, I implore,
tell no one that I have fallen
so low as to be thus ensnared.
-
Maidenflower there—
with distaste I pass it by,
going on my way;—
for it stands upon Mount Otoko,
so it seems to me indeed.