with no one to behold
they scatter and fall away—
deep in the mountains;
these autumn leaves are but
brocade worn in the night

Meaning

With no one to see them, the autumn leaves deep in the mountains scatter and fall—they are but brocade worn in the night.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)

Composed when setting out to view the autumn leaves in the northern mountains of Kyoto.

“Brocade at night” comes from a passage in the Records of the Grand Historian (Xiang Yu’s Annals): “To return home in wealth and honor without doing so is like wearing brocade and walking at night,” meaning something splendid that goes unseen and thus is in vain.

Here it laments that the beautiful autumn leaves, like brocade, fall unseen by anyone.

Author

Ki no Tsurayuki

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

even the path I came I no longer can discern— on Mount Kurabu, dark, as the leaves of many trees fall in a blinding scatter
when I pass in autumn through Mimuro, sacred mount, where the gods abide— it feels as though I have cut and wear a robe of brocade
since there is a god who makes offerings to Tatsuta the goddess fair— the autumn leaves must fall like sacred streamers scattered
in autumn mountains the reddened leaves as offerings are laid before the gods— even I who dwell here feel as though I were on a journey

with no one to behold they scatter and fall away— deep in the mountains; these autumn leaves are but brocade worn in the night

with no one to behold
they scatter and fall away—
deep in the mountains;
these autumn leaves are but
brocade worn in the night