Akikaze wa mi o wakete shimo fukanaku ni hito no kokoro no sora ni naruramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋風は身を分けてしも吹かなくに
人の心の空になるらむ

Roma-ji: Akikaze wa mi o wakete shimo fukanaku ni hito no kokoro no sora ni naruramu
English Translation: The wind of autumn
does not part the flesh and blow
within a person,
yet why has the heart of my love
become as empty as the sky?
Meaning: The autumn wind does not split a body open and blow inside it, so why has the heart of the one I love become as empty and distracted as the sky?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 787

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The autumn wind does not blow through a person's body, so why has the lover's heart become empty like the sky? Echoing aki, "weariness," in "autumn," and joining the wind that blows through with a heart grown hollow, it expresses bewilderment at a change of heart in a reasoned way.
The author, "Tomonori", is Ki no Tomonori, son of Ki no Aritomo and cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki. He rose to Senior Private Secretary and was appointed a compiler of the Kokinshū, but is said to have died before its completion. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line names the autumn wind, echoing aki, "weariness," to hint at a change of heart. Since poem 781, poems setting changes of heart against autumn imagery have continued in this book.
The second line means "parting the body and entering it," with the emphatic shimo.
In the third line nakuni, the nominalized form of the negative zu, is concessive: "though it does not blow."
The fourth line names the lover's heart, subject of "sky" in the last line.
In the last line sora means both the sky where the autumn wind blows and absent-mindedness, an associated word for the wind. Ramu asks the cause.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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