あきといへばよそにぞ聞きしあだ人の
我をふるせる名にこそありけれ
我をふるせる名にこそありけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Aki to ieba yoso ni zo kikishi adabito no ware o furuseru na ni koso arikere
- English Translation
-
When they spoke of aki,
I heard it as something far
from my own concern;
it is the name for how a fickle heart
wears me old and casts me off
- Meaning
- When people spoke of aki, I thought it was only the season and had nothing to do with me. But it turns out to be the name for how a fickle lover grows weary of me and casts me aside.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 824
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The speaker had thought aki merely the name of a season, but realizes it is the name for a fickle lover growing tired of her and casting her off. Taking up the preceding sequence pairing the autumn wind with weariness, it focuses on the word aki itself, as if to close the run.
In the first line aki is a pivot word, meaning both autumn and weariness. It takes up the aki sequence continuing since poem 820.
In the second line yoso means something unrelated to oneself, and zo is resolved by shi, attributive of the past ki. The poem breaks here.
The third line, adabito, means a fickle or faithless person, the lover whose heart has changed.
In the fourth line furusu means to make old, to tire of and discard, treating her as something worn out.
The last line resolves koso with kere, the perfective of keri, expressing the realization that such was the name.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Akikaze no fukiuragaesu kuzu no ha no uramite mo nao urameshiki kana
- Next Poem
-
Wasuraruru mi o ujibashi no naka taete hito mo kayowanu toshi zo henikeru