Kakiho naru ogi no ha soyogi akikaze no fuku naru nae ni kari zo naku naru

English Translation

By the hedge the reeds
rustle in their leaves, and as
the autumn wind blows,
sweeping through them, even now
the wild geese are calling out

Meaning

The leaves of the reeds by the hedge rustle, and as the autumn wind blows through them, I hear the wild geese crying.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 497

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the wild goose sequence. As the autumn wind blows, rustling the reed leaves by the hedge, the cry of wild geese is heard. 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 autumn as the wind begins to blow, at a dwelling with reeds growing along its hedge.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
It is a variant of an anonymous poem in Book Ten of the Man'yōshū, "Ashibe naru ogi no ha sayagi akikaze no fukikuru nae ni kari nakiwataru," differing in the first, fourth, and last lines.

In the first line, "kakiho" is a hedge, and "naru" indicates location: "by the hedge."
In the second line, "ogi" is a tall reed growing near water; the rustle of its leaves is sung of as announcing the autumn wind.
The third line gives the subject of "fuku" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "naru" is the attributive of "nari," the auxiliary of inference from sound, and "nae ni" means "along with": the wind is heard through the rustling reeds, and at the same moment the geese's cry follows.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by the inferential "naru." Layering the rustle of reeds, the sound of wind, and the cry of geese, the poem depicts the arrival of autumn with the geese entirely through hearing. Following 496, where only the geese's cries could be heard through the mist, the goose sequence begins with a poem of sound. "Nae ni" is used again in 499.

Author

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other