秋山のしたひが下に鳴く鳥の
声だに聞かば何か嘆かむ
声だに聞かば何か嘆かむ
- Roma-ji
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Akiyama no shitai ga shita ni naku tori no koe dani kikaba nani ka nagekamu
- English Translation
-
On the autumn hills
under trees of crimson hue
singing, like the birds,
if I could but hear your voice,
why then would I grieve at all?
- Meaning
- Like the birds singing beneath the crimson trees of the autumn hills—if I could hear even your voice, why should I grieve?
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2239
Headnote: "Autumn Love Poems"
This poem says that if the speaker could hear even the beloved's voice, like birds singing beneath the colored trees of the autumn hills, there would be no grief, and it stands at the head of the Autumn Love Poems. The ache of a love that cannot meet, wishing at least to hear the voice even if the form is unseen, is expressed. The autumn hills and birdsong sung as scenery in the miscellaneous poems are used in the love poems as figures for love.
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, "of the autumn hills," names the place.
In the second line, "shitai ga shita ni," "shitau" means to turn red in autumn, taken to mean beneath the colored trees.
The third line, "like the singing birds," with the upper lines forming a preface leading into "voice."
In the fourth line, "koe dani kikaba," "dani" means at least and "ba" marks a supposition.
In the last line, "nani ka nagekamu," "ka" is a rhetorical particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "mu": why would I grieve?
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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