Mi no hodo o omoitsuzukuru yūgure no ogi no uwaha ni kaze wataru nari

English Translation

Thinking on and on
of what my own station is
in the evening, and
across the reeds' upper leaves
a wind is passing, it seems

Meaning

In the evening, brooding on what my own condition is, I hear a wind passing over the upper leaves of the reeds.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 353

Headnote: on the reed, from a hundred-poem sequence called for in the reign of Retired Emperor Sutoku.
The second poem on the reed's upper leaves. Where the previous poem laid a feeling on the plant, this one has the wind arrive while the poet broods on his own case. The headnote assigns it to a hundred-poem sequence with the reed as its topic.
The poet, given by his court title, is Minamoto no Yukimune (1064-1144), who served as Minister of the Treasury. A poem by him appears in Book Nine, at the eight hundred and ninety-fourth.
The time is an autumn evening; the place is where reeds grow.
The occasion was the set topic.

The first line means one's own station or circumstances. Like the previous poem it opens on the word for the self, and the two share it.
The second line means to go on thinking without a break; the verb of continuing chimes with the passing of the wind below.
The third line gives the hour. Prince Tomohira's three hundred and third poem and Sanesada's three hundred and fourth also set the reed at evening, and in this book the plant and the hour are bound together.
The fourth line repeats the previous poem's words.
The auxiliary at the close marks inference from sound. Into a mind sunk in thought the sound of the wind comes from outside, and inner and outer are joined by hearing.

Author

Minamoto no Yukimune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other