Kyō kozu wa mide ya yamamashi yamazato no momiji mo hito mo tsune naranu yo ni

English Translation

Had I not come today,
would I have missed the sight?
In this mountain village
the autumn leaves and people
in a world that does not last.

Meaning

Had I not come today, would I have ended without seeing it? For in this world where nothing lasts, neither the autumn leaves of the mountain village nor people remain.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 800

Headnote: "On seeing a single autumn leaf remaining when I went to the house at Shirakawa around the tenth month, after Middle Captain Lord Nobukata had died, at a time when the world was fleeting and many people were dying."
This is the first poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of winter. It says that had he not come today he might have ended without seeing it, in a world where neither the autumn leaves of the mountain village nor people last. According to the headnote, at a time when the world was fleeting and many were dying, Middle Captain Lord Nobukata also died, and the poem was composed on seeing a single autumn leaf remaining when he went to the house at Shirakawa around the tenth month.
The son of Chancellor and Grand Minister Fujiwara no Yoritada, the author rose to Provisional Major Counselor and compiled the Wakan Rōeishū. "Middle Captain Lord Nobukata" is Minamoto no Nobukata, son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Shigenobu, who became Middle Captain but died in Chōtoku 4 (998).
The scene is around the tenth month, set at the house at Shirakawa, east of the capital.
The direct occasion is seeing a single autumn leaf left on the tree at the house at Shirakawa after Nobukata's death.

In the first line, "kyō kozu wa," "zu wa" means "if I had not." It supposes that he had not come here today.
In the second line, "mide ya yamamashi," "de" is a negative connective, "ya" interrogative, and "mashi" counterfactual, meaning "would I have ended without seeing it?" The poem pauses after the second line.
The third line, "yamazato no," refers to the mountain village where the house at Shirakawa stands.
The fourth line, "momiji mo hito mo," sets side by side the single autumn leaf left on the tree and the people who have died, Nobukata among them.
The last line, "tsune naranu yo ni," means "in a world that changes and never stays the same." Through inversion, the reason for the lament of the second line is placed at the end. The single remaining leaf may fall tomorrow, and human life is the same. Moving from the autumn poems that ran to the preceding poem, 799, to the autumn leaves of the tenth month, the sequence remembering the dead through the things of winter begins.

Author

Fujiwara no Kintō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other