女郎花秋の野風にうちなびき
心ひとつを誰に寄すらむ
心ひとつを誰に寄すらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Ominaeshi aki no nokaze ni uchinabiki
kokoro hitotsu o tare ni yosuramu - English Translation
-
Maidenflowers sway
in autumn fields, bent by the wind—
so too her heart;—
to whom, I wonder, does she
give that single, wayward heart?
- Meaning
- The maidenflowers bend in the autumn wind across the fields; so too, to whom does that single heart turn?
- Commentary
-
Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
Composed and presented at the maidenflower contest held at the Suzaku-in.
The poem likens a woman of many loves to the maidenflower swaying in the autumn wind. From a man’s perspective, it may express curiosity about whom her heart is given, or perhaps a sense of disapproval that she does not fix her affection on one alone.
“Suzaku-in” refers to the residence of the Retired Emperor Uda, and may also indicate the emperor himself. The site is in present-day Kyoto.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tokihira
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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.
- If I should lodge there in fields where maidenflowers bloom in great numbers, without cause, a fleeting name would surely rise about me.
- Maidenflower, you— hard it is to meet but in the autumn alone;— though you do not grow, in truth, upon Heaven’s river shore.
- Since autumn belongs not to any single one, maidenflower, why do you show your color so soon, fading even before its time?