If I should lodge there
in fields where maidenflowers
bloom in great numbers,
without cause, a fleeting name
would surely rise about me.
- Meaning
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If I were to stay in fields where many maidenflowers bloom, I would, without reason, gain a reputation for fickle love.
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
Since the maidenflower is likened to women, spending a night in a field where many bloom suggests, in playful jest, being surrounded by many women. The poem humorously implies that such a stay would give rise to rumors of promiscuity, though nothing has truly occurred.
“Ayanaku” means without reason.
“Ada” refers to something frivolous or associated with fleeting love.
- Author
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Ono no Yoshizai
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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Maidenflower there—
with distaste I pass it by,
going on my way;—
for it stands upon Mount Otoko,
so it seems to me indeed.
-
In autumn fields now
I shall take my lodging here—
maidenflower blooms;
dear its very name to me,
though I am not on a journey.
-
Maidenflowers sway
in autumn fields, bent by the wind—
so too her heart;—
to whom, I wonder, does she
give that single, wayward heart?
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Maidenflower, you—
hard it is to meet but in
the autumn alone;—
though you do not grow, in truth,
upon Heaven’s river shore.