Yamazato no kaze susamajiki yūgure ni konoha midarete mono zo kanashiki

English Translation

In a mountain village
at the dusk when the wind blows
bleak and chill,
the tree leaves are thrown in disarray
and all things seem so sad to me

Meaning

At dusk in the mountain village, when the wind blows bleak and cold, the leaves whirl in disarray, and a sorrow settles over everything.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 564

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed and presented on the topic 'Falling Leaves' for the Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest."
This is the twelfth poem of the falling-leaves sequence. At dusk in a mountain village, when the wind blows bleak and cold, the leaves whirl in disarray and all things seem sad. The headnote continues from the preceding poem, and this poem was composed on the topic "Falling Leaves" at the same Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest.
The author, "Fujiwara no Hideyoshi," is Fujiwara no Hideyoshi. A son of Fujiwara no Hidemune, he served Retired Emperor Go-Toba as a warrior of the Northern Guard and, after the Jōkyū Disturbance, took holy orders under the name Nyogan.
The scene is a winter dusk, and the place is a mountain village.
As with the preceding poem, the direct occasion is the topic "Falling Leaves" at the Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest of Genkyū 1 (1204).

The first line, "yamazato no," refers to a village set among the mountains, far from the capital.
The second line, "kaze susamajiki," describes a wind that is cold and desolate. "Susamajiki" is in the attributive form and modifies "yūgure" in the third line.
The third line, "yūgure ni," fixes the time. As with "tani no yūkaze" in 558 of this book, the falling leaves are placed in the evening wind.
The fourth line, "konoha midarete," shows the leaves scattering in disarray in the wind. Taking up "the storm blowing through the leaves of the mountain" from the preceding poem, it depicts where the storm-driven leaves go.
The last line, "mono zo kanashiki," is a kakari-musubi construction in which the particle "zo" is answered by the attributive "kanashiki." It shares its last line with 552 in this book, and in both poems leaves scattered by the wind call forth sorrow. Where 552 sang of a sorrow whose cause cannot be named, "sokowaka to naku," this poem arrives at its last line by piling up scenes that invite sadness: the mountain village, the wind, and the dusk.

Author

Fujiwara no Hideyoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other