妻ごもる矢野の神山露霜に
にほひそめたり散らまく惜しも
にほひそめたり散らまく惜しも
- Roma-ji
-
Tsumagomoru yano no kamuyama tsuyujimo ni nioisometari chiramaku oshi mo
- English Translation
-
Where the wife hides in,
Yano's sacred mountain slope
in the dew and frost
has begun to glow with hue—
how I grieve to see it fall!
- Meaning
- The sacred mountain of Yano has begun to glow with color in the dew and frost—how I grieve to think it will scatter.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2178
Headnote: "On Autumn Leaves"
This poem grieves at the thought of the leaves of the sacred mountain of Yano, just beginning to glow with color under dew and frost, scattering. Its headnote is "On Autumn Leaves." The heart that already mourns their falling as the leaves just begin to turn shows through. Together with the next poem, 2179, it comes from the Hitomaro Collection, and the two sing of the autumn mountain beginning to color.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The first line, "tsumagomoru," is a pillow word for "ya," arrow, from "ya," the house where a wife secludes herself.
The second line, "the sacred mountain of Yano," names a mountain where a god dwells; its location is disputed.
The third line, "in the dew and frost," names the cause of the coloring.
In the fourth line, "nioisometari," "niou" means to glow with color, "somu" to begin, and "tari" a continuing state. The poem breaks here.
The last line, "chiramaku oshi mo," is the ending also repeated in the autumn flower groups.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Haru wa moe natsu wa midori ni kurenai no madara ni miyuru aki no yama ka mo
- Next Poem
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Asatsuyu ni nioisometaru akiyama ni shigure na furi so ariwataru gane