うち群れて散る紅葉葉を尋ぬれば
山路よりこそ秋は行きけれ
山路よりこそ秋は行きけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Uchimurete chiru momijiba o tazunureba yamaji yori koso aki wa yukikere
- English Translation
-
When we went in throngs
seeking out the scattering
leaves of autumn red,
it was by the mountain path
that the autumn went away
- Meaning
- When we went together in search of the scattering autumn leaves, we found that it is along the mountain paths that autumn takes its leave.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Autumn Poems II 546
Headnote: "Composed when I went to view the autumn leaves."
This is the twenty-fourth and final poem of the autumn-leaves sequence. Going together in search of scattering leaves, the speaker realizes that autumn departs along the mountain paths. According to the headnote, it was composed on an outing to view autumn leaves.
The author was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Yoritada who rose to Provisional Major Counselor. Accomplished in Chinese verse, waka, and music, he compiled the Wakan rōeishū.
The scene is autumn's end as the leaves fall, on the mountain paths entered in search of them.
The direct occasion was an outing to view the autumn leaves.
In the first line, "uchi" is a prefix, and the phrase is understood to mean "going together in a group."
The second line, "the scattering autumn leaves," shows that the height of the foliage has passed.
The third line, the realis form with "ba," means "when we went seeking." In 441, seeking the stag found only the autumn wind; here the search reveals the path by which autumn departs.
In the fourth line, "yori" marks the route, "by way of," and the emphatic "koso" is bound to "kere" in the last line.
In the last line, "kere" is the realis of "keri," expressing discovery. Following the scattering leaves into the mountains, the speaker realizes that autumn itself is leaving in the direction the leaves fall—a poem of discovery that personifies autumn as a traveler. Closing the autumn-leaves sequence, it identifies where the leaves go with where autumn goes, bridging to the poems on autumn's end from 547. It also echoes "the autumn that is passing" in 452.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kintō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Tatsuta, goddess— in the autumn wind that blows at your parting hour sleeves of people hurry on ahead of the winter rains
- The autumn leaves meant to be keepsakes of the fall as it slips away— will they by tomorrow fall mingled with the winter rain?
- Like cut summer grass I came thinking just a while I would stay, and yet here at Naniwa's bay shore autumn has come to its end
- Passing thus the years, growing old with each autumn that has reached its end— even so, nonetheless, still things fill my heart with sorrow