神無月木々の木の葉は散り果てて
庭にぞ風の音は聞こゆる
庭にぞ風の音は聞こゆる
- Roma-ji
-
Kannazuki kigi no konoha wa chirihatete niwa ni zo kaze no oto wa kikoyuru
- English Translation
-
In the Godless Month
the leaves of all the trees
have scattered, every one,
and in the garden now
the sound of wind is heard
- Meaning
- In the Godless Month, the leaves of all the trees have fallen, and now it is in the garden that the sound of the wind is heard.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 571
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the winter-showers sequence. The word "showers" does not appear in it, however; it sings of the leaves of all the trees having fallen in the Godless Month, so that the sound of the wind is heard in the garden. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Former Archbishop Kakuchū," is Kakuchū. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, he served as Superintendent of Onjōji and rose to Archbishop.
The scene is the Godless Month, and the place is a garden where the leaves of all the trees have fallen.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "Kannazuki," is another name for the tenth lunar month. Following 552 and 568 in this book, the word "Godless Month" again leads in a scene of early winter.
The second line, "kigi no konoha wa," means "the leaves of the trees," repeating the sound of "ki," tree.
The third line, "chirihatete," means "having fallen completely." The leaves that have gone on falling through the falling-leaves sequence of this book are here presented as fallen to the last.
The fourth line, "niwa ni zo kaze no," singles out "in the garden" with the particle "zo." Packed into "zo" is the contrast between the wind that rustled in the treetops while the leaves remained and the wind now heard in the garden.
The last line, "oto wa kikoyuru," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by "kikoyuru," the attributive form of the verb "kikoyu." With no leaves left in the treetops and only the sound of the wind reaching the garden, the change in sound marks the deepening of winter. Poem 558 in this book also sings of the sound of wind whirling leaves across the garden.
- Author
- Kakuchū
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- When, before I knew, did the sky change its look? Fierce this morning, the withering winter blast, the wind of kogarashi
- Over the high peak where I wait for the moon, the clouds have cleared away; surely it has a heart, this first winter shower
- On the brushwood door the light of the setting sun still falls, and yet why do the winter showers fall on this mountainside?
- Clouds have cleared, and still winter showers fall at the brushwood door— dew beneath the pines swept down by mountain wind