Yokogumo no kaze ni wakaruru shinonome ni yama tobikoyuru hatsukari no koe

English Translation

At the break of dawn
when the trailing banks of cloud
part upon the wind,
crossing over the mountains
the voice of the first wild geese

Meaning

At dawn, as the trailing clouds are parted by the wind, I hear the voices of the first wild geese crossing over the mountains.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 501

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifth poem of the wild goose sequence. At dawn, as the trailing clouds are parted by the wind, the voices of the first geese crossing the mountains are heard. The headnote, continued from the preceding poem, gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author's lay name was Satō Norikiyo; a guardsman of the North Office under Retired Emperor Toba, he took vows at twenty-three and traveled the provinces composing poems. His personal collection is the Sankashū.
The scene is an autumn dawn, within sight of mountains trailed by banks of cloud.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

In the first line, "yokogumo" are clouds trailing horizontally across the dawn sky.
The second line depicts the clouds parted by the wind. Like "the sky of trailing clouds parting from the peak" in Fujiwara no Teika's poem 38 in Book One, it sings of clouds dividing at dawn.
In the third line, "shinonome" is daybreak, as the sky begins to lighten.
The fourth line, "yama tobikoyuru," means crossing the mountains, the same phrase as in 498.
The last line ends on a noun: the voice of the first geese of autumn. Layering the sight of clouds parting in the wind with the sound of first geese crossing the mountains, it depicts the wide clear sky of dawn. Whereas 498 watched the geese crossing the mountains recede into the clouds, this poem, using the same phrase, hears the first geese's voices and places them in a dawn sky.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other