Aki no iro o haraihatete ya hisakata no tsuki no katsura ni kogarashi no kaze

English Translation

Has it swept away
every trace of autumn's color,
that now it blows
against the laurel of the moon
in the far heavens, the withering wind?

Meaning

Having swept away every trace of autumn's color here below, does the withering wind now blow even against the laurel tree of the moon in the far heavens?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 604

Headnote: "When I presented fifty poems."
This is the fourteenth poem of the winter-moon sequence. The speaker wonders whether the withering wind, having swept away the crimson leaves, now blows even against the laurel tree said to grow on the moon. According to the headnote, it was composed when a set of fifty poems was presented.
The author, "Masatsune," is Fujiwara no Masatsune. A son of the Minister of Justice Fujiwara no Yoritsune, he founded the Asukai house of kemari football and poetry. He was one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a winter night with the withering wind blowing, and the place is where one looks up at the moon.
The direct occasion is the presentation of a fifty-poem set. The headnote does not record for which gathering the fifty poems were composed.
The legend of a laurel tree growing on the moon comes from China, and in the Kokin Wakashū poem by Mibu no Tadamine, "Hisakata no tsuki no katsura mo aki wa nao momiji sureba ya terimasaruramu" (Does the moon shine all the brighter in autumn because even its laurel turns to crimson?), the laurel of the moon turns red in autumn and makes the moon shine brighter.

The first line, "aki no iro o," means "autumn's color," that is, the crimson leaves, and runs to six syllables, one over the count.
The second line, "haraihatete ya," means "is it because it has swept them all away?" with "ya" as an interrogative particle.
The third line, "hisakata no," is a pillow word modifying "tsuki," moon.
The fourth line, "tsuki no katsura ni," means "against the laurel of the moon." Taking up the laurel of the moon that turns red in autumn in Mibu no Tadamine's Kokin Wakashū poem, the speaker imagines the withering wind trying to strip even those leaves away.
The last line, "kogarashi no kaze," closes on a noun and shares its last line with 569 in this book. Through the grand fancy that the withering wind, having scattered every leaf on earth, reaches even the laurel of the moon in the heavens, the poem shows the cold brilliance of the winter moon. Where the preceding poem gazed at the moon shining clear through bare treetops, this poem sings of a moon whose very laurel is stripped, extending the pairing of falling leaves and moon from earth to heaven.

Author

Fujiwara no Masatsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other