みどりなる一つ草とぞ春は見し
秋はいろいろの花にぞありける
秋はいろいろの花にぞありける
- Roma-ji
-
Midori naru hitotsu kusa to zo haru wa mishi
aki wa iroiro no hana ni zo arikeru - English Translation
-
all in shades of green
I saw them as a single grass
in the springtime fields—
yet in autumn they appear
as flowers of many hues.
- Meaning
- In spring I saw them as a single green grass, yet in autumn they reveal themselves as flowers of many different colors.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
The poet reflects on how a field once seen in spring as a uniform expanse of green, with no distinction among the grasses, appears in autumn adorned with various flowers of many colors.
The contrast between spring and autumn, grass and flowers, and a single hue versus many colors is strikingly expressed.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- is it the grasses’ sleeves in the autumn fields that I see? plumes of silver grass emerging, seem to beckon— like sleeves that call me near.
- am I alone in this to find such beauty moving? crickets softly cry— in the evening’s fading light blooms the yamato-nadeshiko.
- amid a hundred grasses whose blossoms loose their cords wide in autumn fields fair, let my heart give way to longing— let no one reproach me so.
- with moonflower’s hue I would dye these sleeves I wear— though with morning dew once they are soaked through and through their color may fade away.