Asukagawa seze ni nami yoru kurenai ya katsuragiyama no kogarashi no kaze

English Translation

On the Asuka,
in each rapid, waves wash up
crimson—it must be
from Mount Katsuragi's peak
the wintry wind has borne them

Meaning

Crimson washes up with the waves in every rapid of the Asuka River—borne there by the withering wind from Mount Katsuragi.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 542

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the twentieth poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. The crimson leaves washing up with the waves in every rapid of the Asuka River are seen as scattered there by the withering wind of Mount Katsuragi. The headnote, continued from the preceding poem, gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a late Heian courtier who rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
The scene is late autumn with winter approaching, at the rapids of the Asuka River within view of Mount Katsuragi.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "Asukagawa," is the same opening as the preceding poem, 541.
In the second line, "seze" are the many shallows of the river, where leaves wash up with the waves.
In the third line, "kurenai" is the vivid red of the leaves, and "ya" is exclamatory; the leaves are named by their color alone.
The fourth line names the mountain from which the leaves were blown.
The last line ends on a noun: the kogarashi, the withering wind of early winter that strips the leaves. The crimson in the rapids is revealed at the close as the work of Mount Katsuragi's withering wind. Sharing the Asuka River and Mount Katsuragi with 541, it replaces that poem's "autumn wind of the mountain" with the "withering wind," showing the wind that scatters the leaves shifting from autumn to winter. Where 541 inferred the wind from leaves on the river, this poem names the wind outright, treating the same scene with a different movement of thought.

Author

Fujiwara no Nagakata

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other