Yowa ni fuku arashi ni tsukete omou kana miyako mo kaku ya aki wa sabishiki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夜半に吹く嵐につけて思ふかな
都もかくや秋は寂しき

Roma-ji: Yowa ni fuku arashi ni tsukete omou kana miyako mo kaku ya aki wa sabishiki
English Translation: Hearing the storm wind
blowing in the dead of night,
this is what I think:
in the capital as well,
is autumn as lonely as this?
Meaning: Hearing the storm wind blowing in the dead of night, I wonder—is autumn this lonely in the capital, too?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1573

Headnote: "Sent to the former Middle Counselor Akinaga on a morning after a fierce storm, when I was living in a mountain village."
This is the fourteenth poem of the sequence expressing personal feelings through the things of autumn. Hearing the storm wind in the night, the poet wonders whether autumn is as lonely in the capital. According to the headnote, it was sent to Fujiwara no Akinaga on the morning after a fierce storm, while the poet was living in a mountain village.
The author, "the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. The son of Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, he rose to Minister of the Left.
Akinaga's reply to this poem is placed as the next poem.

The first line, "yowa ni fuku," means "blowing in the dead of night."
The second line, "arashi ni tsukete," means "prompted by the storm."
The third line, "omou kana," declares with the exclamatory "kana," "this is what I think," and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "miyako mo kaku ya," means "in the capital, too, like this," with the particle "ya" expressing a question. From the mountain village, he thinks of his friend in the capital.
The last line, "aki wa sabishiki," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "ya" with the attributive form "sabishiki." Taking up the heart that thinks of a friend in the preceding poem, it asks a friend in the capital about the loneliness of the storm in the mountain village.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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