Akigiri no haruru toki naki kokoro ni wa tachii no sora mo omōenaku ni - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋霧の晴るる時なき心には
立ち居のそらも思ほえなくに

Roma-ji: Akigiri no haruru toki naki kokoro ni wa tachii no sora mo omōenaku ni
English Translation: With a heart that knows
no clearing, like autumn mist
that never lifts,
I can scarcely even tell
if I am standing or sitting.
Meaning: My heart is like the autumn mist that never clears; I can hardly even tell whether I am standing or sitting.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 580

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that, just as autumn mist lingers and never clears, his heart, sunk in love, never clears either, so that he can hardly tell whether he is standing or sitting. The heart shut in by love is overlaid on the scene of autumn mist, expressing a torment so great that even everyday movements become uncertain. Around this point in the book, poems that bring in autumn images follow one after another.
Ōshikōchi no Mitsune was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the compilers of the Kokinshū. He held low provincial posts such as Junior Clerk of Kai and Senior Secretary of Izumi, but his poetic talent was highly regarded, and he often composed for the court. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "akigiri no": autumn mist was thought to linger and be slow to clear, becoming a metaphor for a heart that does not clear.
Second line, "haruru toki naki": the mist never clearing is overlaid with the heart never clearing.
Third line, "kokoro ni wa": his own heart, sunk in love and never clearing.
Fourth line, "tachii no sora mo": tachii is the everyday act of standing and sitting. Sora is a pun on the "sky" where mist rises and "feeling," and it is also an associated word of mist.
Fifth line, "omōenaku ni": omōyu means to come naturally to mind, and naku ni expresses negation with a sigh. It leaves the lament that he cannot even tell whether he stands or sits. Like the previous poem, 579, it uses sora as a pun, so the two poems are linked by the same word.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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