Takamado no noji no shinohara sue sawagi soso ya kogarashi kyō fukinu nari

English Translation

At Takamado
on the road, in the bamboo
the tips are rustling
there, it is the killing wind
and today it has begun

Meaning

The tips of the bamboo along the road at Takamado are astir: there, the withering wind has begun to blow today.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 373

Headnote: on wind over the moor, for a contest at the residence of the former Regent and Chancellor, now a lay monk, of Hossho-ji.
The topic is wind across a moor. The lay monk of the headnote is Fujiwara no Tadamichi, poet of the three hundred and second piece, and the poem was submitted to a contest at his house.
Fujiwara no Mototoshi was a late Heian poet and the teacher in poetry of Fujiwara no Shunzei. This is his second appearance in this book, after the three hundred and fifty-fifth poem.
The time is autumn; the place is the moor at Takamado in Yamato, also written of in Kensho's three hundred and thirty-first poem.
The occasion was submission to the contest.
The wind named at the close is the strong wind of late autumn and early winter, said to wither the trees.

The first two lines fix the place; the word for the moor names a stand of slender bamboo.
The third line means that the tips are astir. The wind is known by the rattling of the ends of the plants; as in Korenori's three hundred and forty-fifth poem, on grass withering from the tips, the far end of a plant is where change first shows.
The word opening the fourth line is an exclamation urging attention, used in Sutoku's two hundred and eighty-sixth poem; the two share it, and both announce the arrival of a wind.
The auxiliary at the close marks inference from sound. At the end of the run on autumn winds a wind belonging to winter appears, and the season is shown moving on.

Author

Fujiwara no Mototoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other