Natsukusa no karisome ni tote koshi yado mo naniwa no ura ni aki zo kurenuru

English Translation

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

Meaning

I came to this lodging thinking it would be only for a short while, like summer grass cut down, yet here on the shore of Naniwa, autumn has drawn to its end.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 547

Headnote: "Sent to Michinari while I was staying in the province of Tsu."
This is the first poem of the sequence on autumn's end. The speaker came to this lodging meaning to stay only briefly, yet autumn has ended on the shore of Naniwa. According to the headnote, it was sent to Minamoto no Michinari while the author was in Settsu Province.
The author's lay name was Tachibana no Nagayasu; after taking vows he lived at Kosobe in Settsu Province and traveled the provinces composing poems. He is one of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages.
The scene is autumn's end, on the shore of Naniwa in Settsu Province, a poetic place sung of as a bay grown with reeds.
The direct occasion was sending a poem with news of himself to the poet Minamoto no Michinari while staying in Settsu.

The first line, "natsukusa no," is a preface that, through the "cutting" (kari) of summer grass, leads to "karisome" in the second line.
In the second line, "karisome" is a pivot word echoing the "cutting" of summer grass while meaning "temporary, just for a while"; "tote" means "thinking that."
In the third line, "shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," implying "the lodging I came to, meaning only a short stay."
The fourth line means "on the shore of Naniwa" in Settsu, where the author stays.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by "nuru," the attributive of the perfective "nu." Having come in summer meaning to stay a little while, the speaker has lingered until autumn's end, telling a friend of time's swiftness and a traveler's feelings. The same last line appears in 456, which also moved from the early summer rains of planting, through a pivot on "kari" (reaping), to the close of autumn; the two share a design binding the time from summer to autumn's end with a pivot on "kari." Following 546, where the path of departing autumn was found, the book's closing poems lamenting autumn's end begin here.

Author

Nōin

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other