Hahasohara shizuku mo iro ya kawaruran mori no shitakusa aki fukenikeri

English Translation

In the oak-tree groves
do even the drops that fall
take on a new hue?
the grasses beneath the woods—
autumn has deepened at last

Meaning

In the oak groves, do even the falling drops take on color? The grasses beneath the trees show that autumn has grown deep.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 531

Headnote: "On oak groves, composed for the hundred-poem contest held at my house when I was Major Captain of the Left."
This is the ninth poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. In the oak groves, do even the falling drops change color? The grasses beneath the trees show autumn's depth. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "oak groves" for the hundred-poem contest the author held at his residence as Major Captain of the Left.
The author was a son of Kujō Kanezane who rose to Regent and Chancellor and was called Go-Kyōgoku-dono. He wrote the kana preface of the Shinkokinshū.
The scene is deep autumn, in a forest thick with oaks.
The direct occasion was the hundred-poem contest Fujiwara no Yoshitsune held at his residence while Major Captain of the Left, known as the Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds, where the topic "oak groves" was set.

The first line, "hahasohara," is a grove of oaks, presenting the topic; it is the same word as in 529.
In the second line, "shizuku" are drops of dew or rain falling from the oak leaves, and the interrogative "ya" is bound to "ran" in the third line.
In the third line, "ran," the attributive of the conjectural "ramu," guesses whether even the drops have taken on the color of the leaves. The poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "mori no shitakusa," is the grass growing beneath the trees, shown colored by drops falling from the reddened oak leaves.
In the last line, "ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu" and "keri" exclamatory, expressing the realization that autumn has deepened. Through the conceit that red leaves dye the drops and the drops dye the grasses below—color passing downward—the poem shows autumn pervading the whole forest. In 464 dew colored the upper blades of sedge; here drops from the red canopy dye the undergrowth, moving the theme of dew and colored grass into a vertical composition of forest above and below. The next poem, 532, on the same topic, infers a storm in the oak grove from the color of the river's waves.

Author

Fujiwara no Yoshitsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other