時雨つつもみづるよりも言の葉の
心のあきに逢ふぞわびしき
心のあきに逢ふぞわびしき
- Roma-ji
-
Shiguretsutsu momizuru yori mo kotonoha no kokoro no aki ni au zo wabishiki
- English Translation
-
More than seeing leaves
redden in the autumn rains
falling on and on,
to meet the autumn in the heart
of your words brings me such pain
- Meaning
- More painful than watching the leaves turn red in the passing autumn showers is meeting the autumn, the weariness toward me, in the heart behind your words.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 820
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
More painful than leaves turning red in the showers is meeting the aki, the autumn and the weariness, in the heart behind the lover's words. Like poems 782 and 788, it uses the device of layering a change of heart onto the changing color of the "leaves" of words. From here, poems linking the autumn wind and autumn with weariness continue.
The first line, "as the showers fall and fall," uses tsutsu for repetition; this is the rain that colors leaves.
In the second line momizu is a verb meaning to turn red or yellow, and yori mo marks comparison.
The third line names the lover's words; the "leaf" in kotonoha is an associated word for momizu.
In the fourth line aki is a pivot word, meaning both autumn and weariness.
The last line resolves zo with the attributive of wabishi, closing with "meeting it is painful."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Ashibe yori kumoi o sashite yuku kari no iya tōzakaru waga mi kanashi mo
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Akikaze no fuki to fukinuru musashino wa nabete kusaba no iro kawarikeri