Mushi no ne mo nagaki yo akanu furusato ni nao omoi sou matsukaze zo fuku

English Translation

Crickets never tire
through long nights that will not dawn
in the old village—
and to deepen my sorrow
the wind in the pines blows too

Meaning

In my old home, where even the insects never tire of the long nights that will not end, the wind in the pines blows, adding to my sorrow.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 473

Headnote: "From the fifty-poem sequences for Cloistered Prince Shukaku."
This is the second poem of the insect sequence. In an old home where insects never tire through the long night that will not end, the wind in the pines blows, adding still more to one's sorrow. According to the headnote, it is from the fifty-poem sequences presented to Cloistered Prince Shukaku.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Mitsutaka who rose to Junior Second Rank and Minister of the Imperial Household. He served at the Poetry Office and was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū.
The scene is a long autumn night, in a desolate old home village.
The direct occasion was the fifty-poem sequences that Cloistered Prince Shukaku, a son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and abbot of Ninnaji, commissioned from poets.

In the first line, "ne" is the insects' song, and "mo" sets it beside the pine wind: "the insects' voices too." Against the weakening, receding voice of 472, the insects here keep on singing.
In the second line, "akanu" is a pivot word meaning both that the insects "never tire" of singing and that the long night "does not dawn."
In the third line, "furusato" is a place one once lived, or an old village or former capital fallen to ruin.
The fourth line means adding still more brooding on top of the insects' song.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by the attributive "fuku." Layering the insects' song and the sound of wind in the pines, the poem deepens the loneliness of an autumn night in an old home through sound. The closing form takes up "the autumn wind is blowing" of 471 as "the pine wind is blowing," and the word "pine" links it to "the pine cricket's voice" in the next poem, 474.

Author

Fujiwara no Ietaka

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other