Akikaze ni au tanomi koso kanashikere waga mi munashiku narinu to omoeba - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あき風にあふたのみこそ悲しけれ
我が身むなしくなりぬと思へば

Roma-ji: Akikaze ni au tanomi koso kanashikere waga mi munashiku narinu to omoeba
English Translation: In the autumn wind
the grain of the rice, my trust,
how it fills with grief,
when I think that I myself
have now become an empty husk
Meaning: How sad is my trust, like the grain in the fields exposed to the autumn wind of weariness, when I think that I, like the empty ears of rice, have become hollow and vain.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 822

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Komachi likens herself, having lost all hope when her lover grew tired of her, to ears of rice whose grain has fallen in the autumn wind, leaving them empty. Layering pivot words, aki as autumn and weariness, tanomi as grain of the fields and trust, she paints the grief of an emptied love and self onto an autumn field that should be a scene of harvest. Following the preceding poem, poems pairing the autumn wind with weariness continue.
The author, "Komachi," is Ono no Komachi, by one theory the daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, a district official in Dewa, though her lineage is uncertain. She is thought to have served at court in the reigns of Emperors Ninmyō and Montoku, and is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

In the first line aki is a pivot word, meaning both autumn and weariness, the same word that opens the preceding poem.
In the second line tanomi is a pivot word, meaning both ta no mi, the grain of the rice field, and "trust." Koso is resolved by the perfective in the third line.
In the third line kanashikere, the perfective of the adjective, resolves koso. The poem breaks here.
The fourth line layers the grain becoming empty with her own life becoming vain.
In the last line nu is perfective and omoeba gives the reason, stating by inversion why she grieves.
Author: Ono no Komachi
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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