いづこより秋は行きけむ山里の
紅葉の蔭は過ぎ憂きものを
紅葉の蔭は過ぎ憂きものを
- Roma-ji
-
Izuko yori aki wa yukikemu yamazato no
momiji no kage wa sugiuki mono o - English Translation
-
By what way, I wonder,
did the autumn take itself
off and go from us,
when the shade of the crimson
leaves is so hard to pass by
- Meaning
- By what way did autumn take itself off, when the shade of the crimson leaves in this hill village is so hard to pass by?
- Commentary
-
Part Three: Agemaki
The third of the five, spoken by the Commander of the Gate Guards, another son of Yugiri. He praises the colour at Uji and says how hard it is to leave. The party went on in high spirits, while Niou alone was fretting at being unable to reach the sisters.
"By what way did autumn go" personifies the season and asks, in the face of such beauty, by which road it can have left. Sugiushi is to find it hard to pass by, said of a place one is reluctant to leave. Keeping to the form of a poem in praise of a scene, it also sets off the frustration of Niou that follows.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Genji Monogatari
- Other
-
- Even the foot of the tree I saw once, that time, when the flowers were at their height—even that place is desolate in autumn
- It is the cherry that brings it home to us all: blossom at its best and crimson leaf alike belong to a world that does not stay
- On the wall of rock of a hill village where he I knew is no more, how long and constant of heart the creeping vine has spread out
- Now that autumn ends and the loneliness increases at the foot of the tree, do not blow past and be gone, wind in the pines on the peak