Tare mo mina hana no miyako ni chirihatete hitori shigururu aki no yamazato

English Translation

Everyone, all of them,
to the capital of flowers
have scattered away—
alone, I weep with the showers
in this autumn mountain village.

Meaning

Everyone, one and all, has scattered away to the flowering capital, and I alone am left in tears like the autumn showers, in this mountain village.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 764

Headnote: "Composed while still secluded in a mountain village after the forty-ninth day had passed since the death of the woman he had lived with for many years."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on partings by death in spring. It says that everyone has gone back to the flowering capital, while the poet alone weeps in an autumn mountain village where showers fall. According to the headnote, it was composed while he remained secluded in a mountain village even after the forty-ninth day following the death of the woman who had lived with him for many years. Though an autumn poem, it uses flower words such as "the capital of flowers" and "scattered away," and it is placed following the spring poems.
The son of Fujiwara no Akisue, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs, the author served as Master of the Western Capital Office and, at the command of Retired Emperor Sutoku, compiled the Shika Wakashū. He was a poet of the Rokujō Fujiwara house.
The scene is autumn, after the forty-ninth day of mourning for the woman he had lived with for many years, set in the mountain village where he secluded himself in mourning.
The direct occasion is his remaining in seclusion in the mountain village even after the forty-ninth day had passed.
The forty-ninth day marks the end of the intermediate period after a death; with it, mourning was lifted, and those who had secluded themselves returned to ordinary life.

The first line, "tare mo mina," refers to all those who had shared the seclusion of mourning. It is paired with "hitori," alone, in the fourth line.
In the second line, "hana no miyako ni," "hana no miyako" means the splendid capital. The word "hana" is set here to contrast with the autumn mountain village.
The third line, "chirihatete," means "having scattered away completely." It likens people departing for the capital to blossoms falling, and it is an associated word of "hana" in the second line.
In the fourth line, "hitori shigururu," "shigururu" is a pivot word meaning both "the late autumn showers fall" and "to shed tears." "Hitori" answers "tare mo mina" in the first line, showing the loneliness of the one left behind after others have gone.
The last line, "aki no yamazato," ends on a noun. "Hana no miyako" in the second line and "aki no yamazato" in the last line contrast splendor with desolation, the crowd with the solitary self. After the spring flower poems that precede it, the scene here shifts to an autumn mountain village, with only the word "hana" keeping the link to the spring group.

Author

Fujiwara no Akisuke

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other