Aki fukenu nake ya shimoyo no kirigirisu yaya kage samushi yomogifu no tsuki

English Translation

Autumn has grown late—
cry out, cricket, on this night
of hoary frost here;
slowly the light grows colder,
moon over the mugwort patch

Meaning

Autumn has grown late—cry out, cricket, on this frosty night. Little by little the light grows cold: the moon over the mugwort-choked garden.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 517

Headnote: "As an autumn poem."
This is the third poem of the late-autumn sequence. Autumn has grown late: cry, cricket, on this frosty night; little by little the moonlight over the mugwort garden grows cold. According to the headnote, it was composed as an autumn poem.
The author was a son of Emperor Takakura who ruled as retired emperor after abdicating, established the Poetry Office, and ordered the compilation of the Shinkokinshū. Defeated in the Jōkyū War, he was exiled to the Oki Islands.
The scene is a frosty late-autumn night, in a neglected garden overgrown with mugwort.
The direct occasion was the composition of an autumn poem, though the headnote records neither setting nor year.

In the first line, "nu" is perfective: "autumn has grown late." The poem breaks here.
In the second line, "nake" is imperative and "ya" exclamatory: "cry out!" "Shimoyo" is a cold night of frost.
The third line, "kirigirisu," is the one addressed, and the poem breaks here. The next poem, 518, uses the same words in a different order: "kirigirisu naku ya shimoyo no."
In the fourth line, "yaya" means "gradually" and "kage" moonlight: the moonlight grows steadily colder. The poem breaks here.
The last line ends on a noun: the moon shining on a garden overgrown with mugwort. Breaking after the first, third, and fourth lines, the poem piles up short phrases—deepening autumn, a call to the cricket, cold moonlight—intensifying late-autumn loneliness. The mugwort garden recalls the quiet, overgrown garden of 467.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other