Aki sareba kari no hakaze ni shimo furite samuki yonayona shigure sae furu

English Translation

When autumn arrives,
frost falls from the beating wings
of the passing geese,
and on cold night after night
even the chill showers fall

Meaning

When autumn comes, frost falls in the wind of the wild geese's wings, and night after cold night even the cold showers come down.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 458

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on autumn fields and the autumn chill. When autumn comes, frost falls in the wind of the geese's wings and, night after cold night, even showers fall—an image of the deepening chill. The headnote, continued from the preceding poem, gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a poet who served at the courts of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu in the Asuka period.
The scene is the cold nights of deepening autumn, beneath a sky crossed by wild geese.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

In the first line, "sare" is the realis form of "saru," "to come round," so the phrase means "when autumn comes."
In the second line, "hakaze" is the wind stirred by beating wings. Following the cry of the geese in 456, here it is their wingbeats that are described.
The third line is a fanciful image: frost falling in the wind of the geese's wings.
The fourth line means "on cold night after night." The cold deepens from "the autumn wind will blow cold" in 457, showing the chill of autumn nights continuing day by day.
In the last line, "sae" is an additive particle: on top of the frost, even showers fall. Layering frost and showers brings the cold to its height and hints at the approach of winter. Showers also appeared in "evening showers" in 437 at the head of the book, recurring as an image of autumn's deepening.

Author

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other