秋風の袖に吹きまく峰の雲を
翼にかけて雁も鳴くなり
翼にかけて雁も鳴くなり
- Roma-ji
-
Akikaze no sode ni fukimaku mine no kumo o tsubasa ni kakete kari mo naku nari
- English Translation
-
Bearing on their wings
the peak's clouds that autumn wind
swirls about my sleeves,
the wild geese too, as I go,
can be heard crying above
- Meaning
- Carrying on their wings the clouds of the peak that the autumn wind swirls about my sleeves, the wild geese too are crying as they go.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Autumn Poems II 506
Headnote: "Among poems matched with Chinese verses, on 'traveling a mountain road in autumn.'"
This is the tenth and final poem of the wild goose sequence. The geese too cry as they go, bearing on their wings the clouds of the peak that the autumn wind swirls about the traveler's sleeves. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "traveling a mountain road in autumn" in a contest matching Chinese verses with waka.
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 an autumn journey, on a mountain road crossing a cloud-hung peak.
The direct occasion was a contest matching Chinese verses and waka on shared topics, where the topic "traveling a mountain road in autumn" was set.
The first line gives the subject of "fukimaku" in the second line.
The second line means the wind swirls about the sleeves of one traveling the mountain road, showing the traveler of the topic.
The third line, "mine no kumo o," is hypermetric with six syllables, and refers to clouds hanging on the peak.
The fourth line depicts flying through the clouds as though hanging them on one's wings, the same conceit as "bearing the white clouds upon their wings" in 502.
In the last line, "mo" means "the geese too, along with the traveler," and "nari" is the auxiliary of inference from sound. The clouds of the peak that swirl about the traveler's sleeves are borne on the wings of crying geese as well, placing traveler and geese side by side on the same autumn journey through the mountains. Sharing "wings" and "autumn wind" with 505, the poem closes the goose sequence by overlaying the geese crossing the sky with a traveler on the road below.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Ietaka
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Have the gathered clouds been cleared by the wind of wings of the passing geese? in the sky where I hear them the moonlight shines crystal clear
- Through the gusting sky where the winds blow every way the first geese fly on— on their wings they make it sound, the autumn wind from all sides
- On chrysanthemums by the hedge that wait for frost, in the early night a color seems to settle— the moon on the mountain's rim
- Though you may be changed moving to the ninefold court, O chrysanthemum, do not forget, in your heart, the hedge where you used to bloom