あしひきの山の黄葉今夜もか
浮かび行くらむ山川の瀬に
浮かび行くらむ山川の瀬に
- Roma-ji
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Ashihiki no yama no momichiba koyoi mo ka ukabiyukuramu yamagawa no se ni
- English Translation
-
Of the rugged hills,
the colored leaves of the mountains:
tonight again, perhaps,
are they floating on their way
down the mountain streams' shallows?
- Meaning
- The autumn leaves of the mountains: tonight too, are they floating away on the shallows of the mountain streams?
- Commentary
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Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1587
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Eleven poems from the banquet gathered by Tachibana no Ason Naramaro"
At the banquet, the poet imagines that the autumn leaves of the mountains are falling again tonight and floating away on the shallows of the mountain streams. Turning away from the lively feast before him, he gives his heart to a quiet night scene in the distant mountains. The note says, "The above poem is by Ōtomo no Sukune Fumimochi."
The author, Ōtomo no Fumimochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and a younger brother of Yakamochi. He died young.
The first line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for "mountain."
The second line names the autumn leaves adorning the mountains.
The third line, with the particle "ka," expresses a surmise: "tonight again, perhaps."
The fourth line forms a kakari-musubi, closing in the attributive of the present conjectural "ramu" in answer to "ka," imagining them floating away. The poem pauses here.
The final line, "on the shallows of the mountain streams," names at the end, by inversion, where the leaves flow. Amid banquet poems rejoicing in wearing picked leaves, this one pictures leaves falling and flowing away, and differs in mood.
- Author
- Ōtomo no Fumimochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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