since there is a god
who makes offerings to Tatsuta
the goddess fair—
the autumn leaves must fall
like sacred streamers scattered

Meaning

Because there is a god who makes offerings to Tatsuta-hime, the autumn leaves must fall like sacred streamers.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)

A poem on autumn.

Tatsuta-hime was regarded as the goddess of autumn, enshrined at Tatsuta Shrine west of Nara. As she departs—that is, at the end of autumn—the falling leaves are imagined as offerings (nusa) made to her.

“Nusa” are offerings to the gods, also associated with gifts at departure. The idea that autumn ends because Tatsuta-hime leaves, and that the leaves become offerings to her, gives the poem its distinctive charm.

Author

Kanramu Ou

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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
with no one to behold they scatter and fall away— deep in the mountains; these autumn leaves are but brocade worn in the night
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
as autumn passes on beyond the sacred Kannabi mountain of the gods— upon the Tatsuta River it makes offerings of leaves

since there is a god who makes offerings to Tatsuta the goddess fair— the autumn leaves must fall like sacred streamers scattered

since there is a god
who makes offerings to Tatsuta
the goddess fair—
the autumn leaves must fall
like sacred streamers scattered