Akihagi wa sakubeku arashi waga yado no asaji ga hana no chiriyuku mireba

秋萩は咲くべくあらし我がやどの
浅茅が花の散りゆく見れば

Roma-ji: Akihagi wa sakubeku arashi waga yado no asaji ga hana no chiriyuku mireba
English Translation: The autumn clover
seems about to come in bloom,
for in my garden
the flowers of the low reeds
I see falling one by one
Meaning: The autumn bush clover seems ready to bloom, for I see the flowers of the low reeds in my garden falling away.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1514

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems by Prince Hozumi"
Seeing the flowers of the low reeds in his garden falling, the poet senses the turning of the season: the autumn bush clover must be ready to bloom. The poem shows a delicate eye that reads the approach of autumn from small changes close at hand.
The author, Prince Hozumi, was a son of Emperor Tenmu and served as Controller of the Council of State.

The first line names bush clover, the representative flower of autumn and the flower sung most often in the autumn miscellaneous poems of this book.
The second line, with the inferential "rashi," surmises that it is about to bloom, and the poem pauses here.
The third line names his own garden.
The fourth line names the flowers of the low-growing cogon grass.
The final line, "seeing them fall," gives by inversion the grounds for the "rashi" of the second line. It takes the same stance as "spring seems to have come" in 1422 of this book: that poem knew spring from distant treetops coming into bloom, this one knows autumn from nearby reeds losing their flowers.
Author: Prince Hozumi
Source: Manyoshu
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