Miyako o ba aki to tomo ni zo tachisomeshi yodo no kawagiri iku yo hedatetsu

English Translation

From the capital
together with the autumn
I began my way—
and the river mists of Yodo,
how many nights have they come between?

Meaning

I set out from the capital just as autumn arrived. For how many nights now have the river mists of Yodo stood between the capital and me?

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 876

Headnote: "Sent to someone in the capital when going down to Mimasaka around the seventh month."
This is the third poem of the sequence on autumn partings. The speaker set out from the capital as autumn arrived and wonders how many nights the river mists of Yodo have kept him apart from it. According to the headnote, it was sent to someone in the capital when he went down to Mimasaka around the seventh month.
The author was a son of Ōe no Narihira, a scholar who served Emperors Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa, and Horikawa and rose to Acting Middle Counselor.
The scene is his journey around the seventh month, and the place is near Yodo.
The direct occasion was the poem he sent to someone in the capital as he went down to Mimasaka.
Yodo is a place in Yamashiro, in present-day Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, a key point for river traffic on the Yodo River and the starting point of journeys from the capital to the western provinces.

The first line, "miyako o ba," means "the capital," the particle "wa," voiced as "ba" after "o," marking the object with emphasis.
The second line, "aki to tomo ni zo," means "together with autumn," the particle "zo" giving strong emphasis. It takes up the time around the seventh month given in the headnote.
In the third line, "tachisomeshi," "tachi" plays on autumn arriving and setting out on a journey, while also echoing the rising of the river mists that follow. "Some" means "to begin," and "shi," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," closes the concord with "zo," so the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "yodo no kawagiri," is the mist rising over the river at Yodo, where the journey began. The mist hides the direction of the capital and is sung as what divides the traveler from it.
The last line, "iku yo hedatetsu," means "how many nights has it kept us apart," the perfective auxiliary "tsu" showing the nights of separation piling up. Following the preceding poem, which speaks of being lured away by autumn, this poem comes from the road after setting out with autumn, so the sequence of autumn partings moves from the one seeing off in 874 and the one leaving in 875 to this poem written after the journey has begun.

Author

Oe no Masafusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other