Natorigawa yanase no nami zo sawagu naru momiji ya itodo yorite sekuran

English Translation

Natori River—
the waves at the fishing weir
sound in turmoil there;
have the crimson leaves drawn close
all the more to dam the stream?

Meaning

I hear the waves roaring at the fish weir on the Natori River. Could it be that the crimson leaves have gathered ever more thickly there, damming up the flow?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 553

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the falling-leaves sequence. Hearing the roar of the waves at the fish weir on the Natori River, the speaker wonders whether the crimson leaves have gathered ever more thickly to dam the stream. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Minamoto no Shigeyuki," is Minamoto no Shigeyuki. Of the Seiwa Genji line, he is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. In his later years he went down to Mutsu in the service of the governor Fujiwara no Sanekata and died there.
The scene is early winter as the leaves fall, and the place is the fish weir on the Natori River in Mutsu Province.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "Natorigawa," names a poetic place in Mutsu Province, a river that flows through present-day Miyagi Prefecture into the Pacific. Because its name suggests "gaining a name," that is, becoming the subject of rumor, it was often sung in love poems, but here it appears as a river carrying autumn leaves.
In the second line, "yanase no nami zo," "yanase" is a shallows where a weir has been set to catch fish. The particle "zo" singles out those waves with emphasis.
The third line, "sawagu naru," answers the particle "zo," and "naru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari," which infers from sound. The poem begins with the roar of the waves caught by the ear, and it breaks off here after the third line.
In the fourth line, "momiji ya itodo," "ya" is an interrogative particle that corresponds to "ran" in the last line. "Itodo" means "all the more" or "ever increasingly."
The last line, "yorite sekuran," means "might they be gathering to dam the stream?" and closes with "ran," the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary. The poem infers an unseen cause from a sound, and the device of leaves damming the current is carried on in the poems of leaves on the river that follow, from the question put to the raftsman in the next poem to the weir and brushwood barrier of 555.

Author

Minamoto no Shigeyuki

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other