classic waka stream

我が恋は庭のむら萩うら枯れて
人をも身をもあきの夕暮れ
Roma-ji

Waga koi wa niwa no murahagi uragarete hito o mo mi o mo aki no yūgure

English Translation
This love of mine is
the garden's clustered bush clover,
withering at the tips;
weary of you, of myself,
the autumn evening comes.
Meaning
My love is like the clustered bush clover in the garden, withering from the tips; it is an autumn evening in which I have grown weary of you and of myself alike.
Commentary
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1322

Headnote: "Composed as a love poem."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence of love's grief sung through autumn imagery. My love is the garden's bush clover withering at the tips, the speaker says, an autumn evening weary of both you and myself. According to the headnote, it was composed as a love poem.
The author, "the Former Archbishop Jien," was a son of the Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi; he served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō. "Former Archbishop" means one who formerly held the office of archbishop.

The first line, "waga koi wa," means "my love." It is the same first line as Shun'e's poem, 1308.
The second line, "niwa no murahagi," is the bush clover blooming in clusters in the garden, a representative image of autumn.
The third line, "uragarete," means "withering from the tips of the leaves." The decline of the bush clover is overlaid with the decline of love.
The fourth line, "hito o mo mi o mo," means "both you and myself."
In the last line, "aki no yūgure," "aki" is a pivot word meaning both "autumn" and "weariness." The heart weary of both the beloved and oneself is gathered into the scene of an autumn evening. It is the same last line as Chōmei's poem, 1318.
Author
Jien
Source
Shin Kokin Wakashu
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