Ima yori wa akikaze samuku fukinamu o ika ni ka hitori nagaki yo o nemu

今よりは秋風寒く吹きなむを
いかにかひとり長き夜を寝む

Roma-ji: Ima yori wa akikaze samuku fukinamu o ika ni ka hitori nagaki yo o nemu
English Translation: From now on, I know,
the autumn wind will blow cold—
how then, all alone,
shall I pass the lengthening nights,
lying down to sleep by myself?
Meaning: From now on the autumn wind will blow cold—how shall I sleep alone through the long nights?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 462

Headnote: "A poem composed by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi in grief for his late concubine in the sixth month of summer, the year 11, tsuchinoto-u"
This mourns his late concubine in the sixth month of summer in Tenpyō 11 (739). From now on the autumn wind will blow cold—how will he pass the long nights alone? he asks, foreseeing a loneliness that will deepen with the season. That he thinks, in summer, of the loneliness of autumn nights to come shows the depth of his grief. His younger brother Ōtomo no Fumimochi answers in the next poem.
This belongs to a sequence of elegies that Ōtomo no Yakamochi composed from the sixth month of summer into autumn in Tenpyō 11 (739), mourning his late concubine.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and a Nara-period official. He served as Governor of Etchū and of Inaba, among other posts, rose to Middle Counselor, and died in Enryaku 4 (785). He is thought to have been deeply involved in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line "From now on, I know" means from this time forward.
Second line "the autumn wind will blow cold": though it is the sixth month, he thinks of autumn to come.
Third line: fukinamu o—na perfective, mu conjectural, o concessive—"will blow, and yet."
Fourth line "how then, all alone": ka is an interrogative binding particle concluded by nemu at the end.
Fifth line "shall I pass the lengthening nights" ends in lament; the next poem's first line takes up "the long nights."
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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