厭ひてもなほ厭はしき世なりけり
吉野の奥の秋の夕暮
吉野の奥の秋の夕暮
- Roma-ji
-
Itoite mo nao itowashiki yo narikeri yoshino no oku no aki no yūgure
- English Translation
-
Though I shun it,
still it is a world to shun—
so I've come to know:
deep within Yoshino's hills,
an autumn evening.
- Meaning
- Even having shunned it, I find the world still something to shun: an autumn evening deep in the hills of Yoshino.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1620
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on retreating into the mountains of Yoshino. Even after shunning the world and entering the depths of Yoshino, the poet finds the world still to be shunned, as he reflects on an autumn evening there. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Fujiwara no Iehira Ason," was a poet of the early Kamakura period.
The first line, "itoite mo," means "even though I shun it." "Te mo" expresses an adversative supposition.
The second line, "nao itowashiki," means "still hateful." Repeating "itoi" of the first line in "itowashiki," it shows feelings that cannot be escaped.
The third line, "yo narikeri," means "such is the world, I find." "Keri" expresses exclamation at a realization, and the poem breaks here after the third line.
The fourth line, "yoshino no oku no," means "deep in the hills of Yoshino." Taking up Mount Yoshino in the two preceding poems, it shows a place entered still more deeply.
The last line, "aki no yūgure," ends in a noun, closing on the hour when loneliness is keenest. The sorrow that remains even in the remote mountains of retreat is entrusted to the scene of an autumn evening.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Iehira
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Yoshinoyama yagate ideji to omou mi o hana chirinaba to hito ya matsuran
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Hitosuji ni narenaba sate mo sugi no io ni yonayona kawaru kaze no oto kana