色かはる萩の下葉を見てもまづ
人の心のあきぞ知らるる
人の心のあきぞ知らるる
- Roma-ji
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Iro kawaru hagi no shitaba o mite mo mazu hito no kokoro no aki zo shiraruru
- English Translation
-
Changing their color,
the lower leaves of bush clover—
seeing them, at once
I am made to know the autumn,
the weariness in his heart
- Meaning
- Even looking at the lower leaves of the bush clover changing color, the first thing I come to know is the autumn, the weariness, in his heart.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1353
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the changing colors of autumn. Each time she sees the lower bush-clover leaves turning, the speaker is first made to know the weariness in the other's heart. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sagami," was a lady-in-waiting poet named for her marriage to Ōe no Kinsuke, Governor of Sagami. She later served Princess Shūshi, daughter of Emperor Ichijō.
The first line, "iro kawaru," begins with the same words as the third line of the preceding poem, binding the two poems by the same phrase.
The second line, "hagi no shitaba o," like "kohagi ga shitaba" in 1346, refers to the lower bush-clover leaves that color early. There they figured hidden feelings showing; here they are seen as a sign of the other's change of heart.
The third line, "mite mo mazu," means "whenever I see them, first of all."
The fourth line, "hito no kokoro no," means "in his heart."
In the last line, "aki zo shiraruru," "aki" is a pivot word joining the season "autumn" and the heart's "weariness." It closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "ruru," a spontaneous form meaning "I cannot help but know." Taking up the "aki" of the preceding poem with the same pivot word, it shifts the view from the autumn that came to oneself to the autumn in the other's heart.
- Author
- Sagami
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Mi ni chikaku kinikeru mono o iro kawaru aki o ba yoso ni omoishi kadomo
- Next Poem
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Inazuma wa terasanu yoi mo nakarikeri izura honoka ni mieshi kagerou