in the godless month
though the drizzling rains have yet
to fall from the sky,
already the sacred grove
of Kannabi shifts its hues.

Meaning

Though the drizzling rains of the tenth month have not yet fallen, already the sacred forest of Kannabi begins to change its colors.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)

Kannabi refers in Shinto to mountains or forests where deities are believed to dwell. Here, the poem describes the sacred grove, an object of reverence, beginning to turn in color before the seasonal rains arrive.

Though the tenth month (Kannazuki) is considered early winter in the lunar calendar, the poem is classified among autumn poems, likely due to its focus on autumn foliage.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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?
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.
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.
though from the selfsame branch the leaves begin to change their hues— it is from the west that autumn first arrives, and thus the turning colors come to be.

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 godless month
though the drizzling rains have yet
to fall from the sky,
already the sacred grove
of Kannabi shifts its hues.