Furusato wa chiru momijiba ni uzumorete noki no shinobu ni akikaze zo fuku

English Translation

The old home lies deep
buried under scattered leaves
of crimson and gold—
through the fern upon the eaves
the autumn wind is blowing

Meaning

The old home lies buried under fallen autumn leaves, and through the hare's-foot fern on the eaves the autumn wind is blowing.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 533

Headnote: "Composed for a panel painting of a ruined house with autumn leaves falling."
This is the eleventh poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. A ruined old home lies buried in falling leaves, and the autumn wind blows through the fern on its eaves. According to the headnote, it was composed for a panel painting of a ruined house with leaves falling.
The author was a son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu and a late Heian poet who compiled the Kin'yōshū.
The scene is late autumn with falling leaves, at a ruined, abandoned house depicted in a panel painting.
The direct occasion was adding a poem to a panel painting of a ruined house with autumn leaves falling.

In the first line, "furusato" is a home once lived in and now fallen to ruin, corresponding to the "ruined house" of the headnote.
The second line depicts the falling leaves of the painting.
The third line, "uzumorete," shows the house hidden under leaves, a sign that visitors no longer come. Like "the path to my home buried under leaves" in 515, it sings of a dwelling buried in fallen leaves.
In the fourth line, "shinobu" is a pivot word joining shinobu, the hare's-foot fern that grows on eaves, with "shinobu," to remember the past fondly. The fern is sung of as growing on the eaves of ruined houses.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by the attributive "fuku." Through the house buried in leaves and the autumn wind stirring the fern on its eaves, the poem breathes into the painting the loneliness of ruin and remembrance. The same last line appears in 441 and 471; after the mountain's foot where a stag was sought and the sleeves sought out by the wind as kin to dew, the autumn wind here blows on the eaves of a ruined home.

Author

Minamoto no Toshiyori

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other