秋風に山の木の葉の移ろへば
人の心もいかがとぞ思ふ
人の心もいかがとぞ思ふ
- Roma-ji
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Akikaze ni yama no konoha no utsuroeba hito no kokoro mo ikaga to zo omou
- English Translation
-
In the autumn wind
the leaves upon the mountain
change and fade in hue;
and your heart as well, I think—
how will it fare, I wonder?
- Meaning
- As the autumn wind turns the leaves on the mountain, I cannot help wondering whether your heart, too, will change.
- Commentary
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Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 714
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Watching the leaves on the mountain change color in the autumn wind, the speaker fears that the lover's heart will change in the same way. It plainly expresses an idea common in the Kokinshū, overlaying the changes of nature with the changes of the human heart.
The poem turns from the laments over false words in the two preceding poems to a foreboding of change expressed through seasonal imagery. In the next poem, 715, the changing heart is overlaid with the thinness of a summer robe, and in 726 with the "thousand colors" of autumn leaves.
The author, "Sosei Hōshi," is the monk Sosei. A son of Archbishop Henjō, he bore the lay name Yoshimine no Harutoshi and after taking vows lived at Urin'in and at Ryōin'in in Isonokami. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The first line, "akikaze ni," means "by the autumn wind," giving the cause of the leaves' changing color.
The second line, "yama no konoha no," refers to the leaves of the mountain trees.
The third line, "utsuroeba," means "since they change," the perfective form of "utsurou" with "ba" giving a definite condition.
The fourth line, "hito no kokoro mo," means "your heart too," the particle "mo" adding "just like the leaves."
The final line, "ikaga to zo omou," means "I wonder how it will be," with the particle "zo" closed by the attributive "omou" in a kakari-musubi.
- Author
- Sosei
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Itsuwari to omou mono kara imasara ni ta ga makoto o ka ware wa tanomamu
- Next Poem
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Semi no koe kikeba kanashi na natsugoromo usuku ya hito no naramu to omoeba