住の江の松を秋風吹くからに
こゑうちそふるおきつ白波
こゑうちそふるおきつ白波
- Roma-ji
-
Suminoe no matsu o akikaze fuku kara ni
koe uchisouru oki tsu shiranami - English Translation
-
through Suminoe pines
the autumn wind begins to blow—
and with added sound
the white waves off the open sea
rise and join their voices too
- Meaning
- As the autumn wind blows through the pines of Suminoe, the white waves offshore add their sound and resound together.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitations
An autumn poem among those written on a screen painted with scenes of the four seasons, at the fortieth-year celebration banquet of Fujiwara no Sadakuni, composed by the Naishi-no-Kami.
The poem describes a landscape of pine trees growing along the shore and waves rising upon the sea. Though inspired by a painted screen, the added imagery of the autumn wind and the sound of the waves makes the reader imagine standing within the scene itself.
“Koe” here means not a voice but a sound, and “uchisofuru” means to add or accompany, with “uchi” serving as a prefix indicating the action.
- Author
- Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- the mountain is high so in the clouds they appear— the cherry blossoms never a day does my heart not go there and long to pluck
- not a rare voice and yet the cuckoo’s calling— through these many years never does it weary me still it leaves me unsated
- the plovers are calling mist rises on the Saho River— it must be so now even the leaves upon the hills grow deeper in their autumn hues
- autumn has come now yet unchanged in hue remains Mount Tokiwa still— so the wind must borrow leaves of scarlet from distant hills