Tsuyushigure moruyama kage no shitamomiji nuru tomo oran aki no katami ni

English Translation

Dew and showers leak
through Moruyama's shade on
low leaves blazing red—
though I be drenched, I'll break some
as a keepsake of autumn

Meaning

Though I be drenched, I will break off the red lower leaves in the shade of Moruyama, where dew and showers leak through, as a keepsake of autumn.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 537

Headnote: "At the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds."
This is the fifteenth poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. The speaker resolves to break off the red lower leaves in the shade of Moruyama, where dew and showers leak through, even at the cost of getting wet, as a keepsake of autumn. According to the headnote, it was composed for the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Mitsutaka who rose to Junior Second Rank and Minister of the Imperial Household. He served at the Poetry Office and was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū.
The scene is late autumn with dew and showers, in the shade of Moruyama, a poetic place in Ōmi Province sung of as the mountain where dew and showers "leak" (moru).
The direct occasion was the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds, completed around 1202.
It takes as its source Ki no Tsurayuki's poem in the second book of autumn poems of the Kokinshū: "On Moruyama, where white dew and showers leak through so heavily, even the lower leaves have all turned color."

The first line, "tsuyushigure," pairs dew and showers, both thought to color the leaves.
In the second line, "moru" is a pivot word joining "to leak" with the place name Moruyama; "yamakage" is the shade of the mountain.
The third line, "shitamomiji," the reddened lower leaves, takes up the source's "even the lower leaves have turned." The opening poem of this book, 437, also begins with "shitamomiji," so the book's first word returns in an autumn-leaves poem near its end.
In the fourth line, "tomo" is a concessive conditional and "n" the volitional "mu": "though I be drenched, I will break them off." In 437 the poet imagined a deer crying "drenched" by showers; here the speaker willingly accepts getting wet.
The last line gives, by inversion, the purpose of breaking the leaves: a keepsake of autumn. The heart regrets the passing season and would keep the lower leaves in hand as a memento. "Keepsake of autumn" is the same phrase as in 452, which closed the deer sequence, and recurs in 545, repeated in the latter part of the book as autumn nears its end.

Author

Fujiwara no Ietaka

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other