白浪に秋の木の葉の浮かべるを
海人の流せる舟かとぞ見る
海人の流せる舟かとぞ見る
- Roma-ji
-
Shiranami ni aki no ko no ha no ukaberu o
ama no nagaseru fune ka to zo miru - English Translation
-
upon the white waves
autumn leaves drift and float—
as I gaze at them
they seem a fisher’s boat
set adrift upon the sea
- Meaning
- The autumn leaves floating upon the white waves appear to me like a fisher’s boat set adrift.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed for a poetry contest at the Empress’s palace in the Kanpyō era.
It contrasts the white of the waves with the red of the autumn leaves. The leaves are likened to a fishing boat that has been set adrift, giving a sense of quiet desolation as they drift upon the waves.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Okikaze
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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
- if the autumn leaves had not flowed drifting along the Tatsuta River— who then would ever know that autumn had reached its waters
- on mountain streams the wind has cast a barrier— a woven fence of leaves; they cannot drift away, these autumn leaves caught fast