Niwaka ni mo kaze no suzushiku narinuru ka aki tatsu hi to wa mube mo iikeri - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

にはかにも風の涼しくなりぬるか
秋立つ日とはむべも言ひけり

Roma-ji: Niwaka ni mo kaze no suzushiku narinuru ka aki tatsu hi to wa mube mo iikeri
English Translation: How suddenly now
the wind has grown so cool—
"the day autumn comes,"
so they call it, and indeed
they have named it well, it seems
Meaning: How suddenly the wind has turned cool! "The day autumn begins"—they were right to call it so.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems I 217

Headnote: "At the poetry contest held at the residence of Prince Koresada."
Surprised that the wind has suddenly turned cool on the first day of autumn, the poet feels that the name "the day autumn begins" is apt indeed. The calendar's beginning of autumn is confirmed by the coolness of the wind felt on the skin.
According to the headnote, it was composed at a poetry contest held at the residence of Prince Koresada, a son of Emperor Kōkō. Placed at the head of the autumn books, it announces the start of autumn through the wind on the first day of the season. Fujiwara no Toshiyuki's "aki kinu to me ni wa sayaka ni mienedomo" in the Kokin Wakashū likewise learns of autumn's arrival through the sound of the wind and likewise opens the autumn book.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Niwaka ni mo," means "suddenly," expressing surprise at sensing the turn of the season all at once. The next poem, 218, likewise opens with "uchitsuke ni," beginning with the same sense of autumn's unexpected arrival.
The second line, "kaze no suzushiku," means "the wind cool," naming the wind that announces autumn. Many poems on the autumn wind follow in this book.
In the third line, "nuru" is the attributive form of the completive auxiliary "nu," and "ka" is an exclamatory particle: "how it has become so." The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "aki tatsu hi to wa," means "the day called the rising of autumn," referring to the first day of autumn.
In the last line, "mube" means "indeed, rightly," and "keri" is a sigh of realization: "they were right to say so," conveying the poet's admiration for the name.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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