訪ふ人もあらし吹きそふ秋は来て
木の葉に埋む宿の道芝
木の葉に埋む宿の道芝
- Roma-ji
-
Tou hito mo arashi fukisou aki wa kite konoha ni uzumu yado no michishiba
- English Translation
-
No one comes to call—
with storm winds blowing harder,
autumn has arrived,
and the grass along the path
lies buried in fallen leaves
- Meaning
- No one will come to visit now—autumn has arrived with storms blowing ever harder, and the grass along the path to my house lies buried under fallen leaves.
- Commentary
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Book Five Autumn Poems II 515
Headnote: "At the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds."
This is the first poem of the late-autumn sequence. Autumn has come with storms blowing ever harder, no one will visit, and the grass on the path to the house is buried under fallen leaves. According to the headnote, it was composed for the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds.
No author's name is given for this poem, which is placed as Shunzei's Daughter's, continuing the attribution of the preceding poem. The author was actually Fujiwara no Shunzei's granddaughter and became his adopted daughter; she was a lady-in-waiting and poet in the service of Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The scene is stormy late autumn, on the path to a dwelling no one visits anymore.
The direct occasion was the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds, completed around 1202.
The first line, "tou hito mo," means "even someone to visit," running on to "arashi" in the second line.
In the second line, "arashi" is a pivot word joining "araji," "there will be none" (to visit), with "arashi," "storm." "Fukisou" means to blow ever harder.
The third line, "aki wa kite," means "such an autumn has come," marking the season's depth.
The fourth line means fallen leaves scattered by the storm bury the path.
The last line ends on a noun: the grass on the path to the house. The path no one walks, buried in leaves, carries the loneliness of late autumn without visitors. From this poem the book turns to late autumn. Following the village of Fukakusa in 512, visited by nothing but quail, here even the path is buried in leaves, and the absence of visitors reaches its extreme.
- Author
- The Daughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Pampas at the foot of the hills in setting sun bend and sway along— in whose autumn weariness does the quail cry out its call?
- Pillowed on the dew scattering so fleetingly, unable to rest, the quail is heard crying out— the mountain wind by my bed
- Dew of changing hues settling on my sleeves in waves, strewn in disarray— withering from the tips now, autumn in the meadow fields
- Autumn has grown late— cry out, cricket, on this night of hoary frost here; slowly the light grows colder, moon over the mugwort patch