Aki fukaki awaji no shima no ariake ni katabuku tsuki o okuru urakaze

English Translation

Deep in autumn now,
at dawn on Awaji's isle
with the moon still up,
sending off the setting moon
blows the wind along the bay

Meaning

At dawn in deep autumn on the island of Awaji, the wind from the bay seems to see off the sinking moon.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 520

Headnote: "An autumn poem, when I composed six poems at the Poetry Office."
This is the sixth poem of the late-autumn sequence. At dawn on the island of Awaji in deep autumn, the wind from the bay blows as if seeing off the sinking moon. According to the headnote, it is the autumn poem among six poems composed at the Poetry Office.
The author was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō.
The scene is dawn in deep autumn, on the shore of Awaji Island, a poetic place in Awaji Province.
The direct occasion was the autumn topic among six poems composed for the Poetry Office.

The first line, "aki fukaki," means "autumn has deepened," marking late autumn like "autumn has grown late" in 517.
The second line sets the place as Awaji Island, surrounded by sea.
In the third line, "ariake" is the time when the moon still lingers in the sky after daybreak.
The fourth line means "the moon sinking west," the same word as in 503; there the moon sank toward a mountain, here toward an island in the sea.
The last line ends on a noun; "okuru" means to see off something departing. Personifying the wind from the bay as seeing off the setting moon, the poem entrusts to the wide dawn seascape a heart that sends off the passing autumn along with the moon. The next poem, 521, picks up "ariake" and sings of the late-autumn moon.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other