もみぢ葉を風にまかせて見るよりも
はかなきものは命なりけり
はかなきものは命なりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Momijiba o kaze ni makasete miru yori mo hakanaki mono wa inochi narikeri
- English Translation
-
More than watching leaves
of autumn that I leave
to the wind's will,
what is fleeting after all
is this life that we are given.
- Meaning
- More fleeting than autumn leaves I watch being scattered at the wind's will is human life itself.
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 859
Headnote: "In the autumn when I was suffering from illness and felt there was little hope, I composed this and sent it to someone"
This poem was composed in an autumn when the poet was suffering from illness and felt there was little hope of recovery, and was sent to someone. He says that human life is even more fleeting than autumn leaves scattered by the wind. His sense of approaching death is entrusted to the scenery of autumn.
From here to the end of the book, poems by those facing death follow, and the arrangement shifts from mourning others' deaths to contemplating one's own.
The author, Ōe no Chisato, was a poet and scholar of Chinese learning in the early Heian period and a son of Ōe no Otondo. He is known for compiling the Kudai Waka, waka composed on lines of Chinese verse.
The first line, "the autumn leaves," refers to the scattering crimson leaves.
The second line, "left to the wind," describes the leaves scattered as the wind wills.
The third line, "more than watching," expresses comparison.
The fourth line, "what is fleeting," means "the most fleeting thing."
The last line, "is life," expresses realization with keri. In 840 and 848 of this book, autumn leaves were a scene of mourning for the dead, but here they become a figure for the fragility of the poet's own life.
- Author
- Oe no Chisato
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Koe o dani kikade wakaruru tama yori mo naki toko ni nemu kimi zo kanashiki
- Next Poem
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Tsuyu o nado ada naru mono to omoikemu waga mi mo kusa ni okanu bakari o