Tabine shite akatsukigata no shika no ne ni inaba oshinami akikaze zo fuku

English Translation

Sleeping on my way,
at the dawn I hear the cries
of the stag, and then
bending down the rice leaves low,
the autumn wind comes blowing.

Meaning

Sleeping on my journey, I hear a stag cry at dawn, and with it the autumn wind blows, pressing down the leaves of the rice.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 920

Headnote: "Composed as a travel poem."
This is the first of a sequence of poems on the loneliness of sleeping on a journey. Sleeping on the road, the speaker hears a stag at dawn, and the autumn wind blows, bending the rice leaves, the loneliness of daybreak on a journey. According to the headnote, it was composed as a travel poem.
The author, "Major Counselor Tsunenobu," is Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A noble of the late Heian period, he rose to Senior Second Rank and Major Counselor and was called the Katsura Major Counselor. He was the father of Minamoto no Toshiyori, and in his last years went down to Tsukushi as Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu, where he died.
The scene is the dawn after a night's sleep on an autumn journey, amid spreading rice fields.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic of "travel."

The first line, "tabine shite," means "sleeping on my journey." Following 911, 912, and 916, the word "tabine" appears again, and from here poems on the loneliness of sleeping on the road continue.
The second line, "akatsukigata no," means "at the hour before dawn." Time has moved on from "sayo fukete" in the preceding poem to the scene of daybreak.
The third line, "shika no ne ni," means "with the cry of the stag." The autumn stag was thought to cry for its mate, and its voice reaches the ears of the sleeping traveler.
The fourth line, "inaba oshinami," means "pressing down the rice leaves." As if answering the stag's cry, the autumn wind bends the rice leaves all across the fields.
The last line, "akikaze zo fuku," means "the autumn wind blows." The particle "zo" is answered by the attributive "fuku." Where the preceding poem hears the bay wind and waves on a night at Naniwa, this poem hears the stag and autumn wind at dawn on the plain, setting shore against field and night against daybreak.

Author

Minamoto no Tsunenobu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other