Utsusemi no yo wa tsune nashi to shiru mono o akikaze samumi shinoitsuru kamo

うつせみの世は常なしと知るものを
秋風寒み偲ひつるかも

Roma-ji: Utsusemi no yo wa tsune nashi to shiru mono o akikaze samumi shinoitsuru kamo
English Translation: This world of the living,
that it lasts not, well I know—
and yet, even so,
for the autumn wind blows cold,
I am longing for her still.
Meaning: I know that this world is fleeting—and yet, because the autumn wind blows cold, I cannot help longing for her.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 465

Headnote: "A poem composed by Yakamochi lamenting the autumn wind after the month had changed"
Composed after the month had changed and autumn had come, the poem grieves at the autumn wind. He knows the world is impermanent, yet in the cold of the autumn wind he cannot stop longing for the one who is gone—a grief that reason cannot contain. The cold autumn wind foreseen in poem 462 has here become real.
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 "This world of the living": utsusemi means this present world, also used as a pillow word for yo.
Second line "that it lasts not" draws on the Buddhist sense of impermanence.
Third line "and yet, even so": mono o is concessive.
Fourth line "for the autumn wind blows cold": mi gives the cause. It echoes "the autumn wind will blow cold" in poem 462.
Fifth line "I am longing for her still": kamo expresses feeling.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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