Toki wakanu nami sae iro ni izumigawa hahaso no mori ni arashi fukurashi

English Translation

Even waves that know
no season show forth their hue
in Izumi's stream—
on the grove of Hahaso
a storm must be blowing now

Meaning

Even the waves of the Izumi River, which know no season, show the color of autumn; a storm must be blowing through the Grove of Hahaso.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 532

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On oak groves, for the hundred-poem contest held at the house of the Major Captain of the Left."
This is the tenth poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. Because even the waves of the Izumi River, which never change with the seasons, are dyed with autumn color, the poet infers that a storm is blowing through the Grove of Hahaso. The headnote continues from the preceding poem: it was composed on the topic "oak groves" for the hundred-poem contest at Fujiwara no Yoshitsune's house.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Shunzei and one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū who later rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
The scene is late autumn as the leaves fall, at the Izumi River and the Grove of Hahaso on its bank. The Izumi is today's Kizu River in Yamashiro, and the Grove of Hahaso is a poetic place beside it.
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, "toki wakanu," means "knowing no season," describing river waves that never change color.
In the second line, "sae" is additive: "even the waves, not only the trees, take on autumn color."
The third line, "izumigawa," is a pivot word joining "izu," to show forth (in color), with the place name Izumi River. The poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "hahaso no mori ni," names the Grove of Hahaso by the Izumi River, presenting the topic.
In the last line, "rashi" is an auxiliary of grounded inference: from the color of the waves, the poet infers a storm in the unseen grove. The storm scatters the oak leaves, which flow into the river and dye even its waves—a chain of cause and effect traced backward from the color before the eyes. With 531, on the same topic, it contrasts a scene within the forest, drops dyeing the undergrowth, and one outside it, leaves dyeing the river. In 530 the break in the river's brocade led to inferring a weakening storm; this poem's inference of a blowing storm forms its counterpart.

Author

Fujiwara no Teika

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other