今朝の朝明雁が音聞きつ春日山
もみちにけらし我が心痛し
もみちにけらし我が心痛し
- Roma-ji
-
Kesa no asake karigane kikitsu kasugayama momichinikerashi aga kokoro itashi
- English Translation
-
At dawn this morning
I heard the cry of the geese;
Mount Kasuga now
must have turned to autumn's hues:
oh, how my heart aches
- Meaning
- At dawn this morning I heard the cry of the wild geese; Mount Kasuga must have turned to autumn colors, and my heart aches.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1513
Headnote: "Two poems by Prince Hozumi"
At dawn this morning the poet heard the cry of wild geese and, thinking that Mount Kasuga must have colored too, is pained by the deepening of autumn. From the audible sign of the geese he pictures the unseen leaves on the mountain and expresses autumn's melancholy.
The author, Prince Hozumi, was a son of Emperor Tenmu and served as Controller of the Council of State.
The first line, with an extra syllable, means "at dawn this morning." Emperor Shōmu's 1540 in this book opens with the same line on the cry of geese and goes on to say that the low reeds of the fields have colored, so poems that learn of autumn's colors from the geese's cry answer each other in the autumn miscellaneous poems.
The second line, with the perfective "tsu," states that he did hear the geese, and the poem pauses here.
The third line names Mount Kasuga in Nara.
The fourth line, with the past inferential "kerashi," surmises that it must have colored, and the poem pauses again.
The final line, with an extra syllable, says plainly that his heart aches, expressing the sorrow he feels as autumn deepens.
- Author
- Prince Hozumi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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