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.
- Meaning
- In the autumn field where countless grasses loosen their cords and bloom, let me give my heart over to feeling—let no one reproach me for it.
- Commentary
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Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
The opening of flowers is likened to the untying of cords, which also suggests the loosening of garments. It may evoke amorous imagery, implying a yielding to pleasure or emotion that the poet asks others not to condemn.
"Momokusa" means a great variety of grasses and flowers.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- am I alone in this to find such beauty moving? crickets softly cry— in the evening’s fading light blooms the yamato-nadeshiko.
- 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.
- 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.
- the village lies in ruin, its people grown old with years— is it such a place? both garden and its hedges seem but an autumn field now.