Uzura naku katano ni tateru haji momiji chirinu bakari ni akikaze zo fuku

English Translation

On Katano's moor
where quail cry, a wax tree stands
in its autumn red—
as if to strip it bare now
the autumn wind is blowing

Meaning

On the moor of Katano, where quail cry, the autumn wind blows so hard that the red leaves of the wax tree seem about to scatter.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 539

Headnote: "At the poetry contest at the house of the Lay Former Regent and Chancellor of Hosshōji."
This is the seventeenth poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. On the moor of Katano where quail cry, the autumn wind blows so hard that the red leaves of a wax tree seem about to scatter. According to the headnote, it was composed for a poetry contest at the house of the Lay Former Regent and Chancellor of Hosshōji, Fujiwara no Tadamichi.
The author was a late Heian courtier who rose to Consultant.
The scene is late autumn with leaves about to fall, on the moor of Katano, a poetic place in Kawachi Province known as an imperial hunting ground and sung of as a moor where quail cry.
The direct occasion was a poetry contest held at the house of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the Lay Former Regent and Chancellor of Hosshōji.

The first line, "uzura naku," means "where quail cry," describing Katano.
In the second line, "ru" is the attributive of the continuative "ri": "standing on the moor of Katano."
In the third line, "haji" is an old name for the wax tree, whose leaves turn bright red.
In the fourth line, "nu" is perfective and "bakari" indicates degree: "so much that they seem about to scatter."
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by the attributive "fuku." On the broad moor of Katano stands a strikingly red wax tree, and the autumn wind blows as if to strip it, portrayed with the cry of quail. Quail were sung of in 512 through 514 and add the loneliness of a desolate moor. The same last line appears in 441, 471, and 533, recurring throughout the book as the place where the autumn wind blows changes. Whereas 538 inferred the wind on the hills, this poem sees the wind on the moor in the leaves before its eyes.

Author

Fujiwara no Chikataka

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other