with mist rising high
the wild geese cry as they pass—
on Kataoka’s plain
in the morning’s early light
the leaves must now be turned red.
- Meaning
- Mist rises, and the wild geese are calling—on the morning plain of Kataoka, the leaves must now have turned to autumn colors.
- Commentary
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Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)
Through the autumn scene of rising mist and the cries of geese, the poet recalls the autumn foliage once seen on the morning plain of Kataoka.
"Kataoka no ashita no hara" refers to an area in what is now northern Nara Prefecture, around present-day Kashiba in Katsuragi District.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- though grasses and trees all change their hues with the season, the wide sea remains— in the blossoms of its waves no sign of autumn is found.
- on the evergreen mount where leaves never turn to crimson, must it be the wind whose sound alone tells of autumn as it passes ever on?
- in the godless month though the drizzling rains have yet to fall from the sky, already the sacred grove of Kannabi shifts its hues.
- in the god-haunted hills of Kannabi, the maple leaves— I shall not set my heart upon them, for they fade away and change their hues in time.