Akikaze no fukeba sasuga ni wabishiki wa yo no kotowari to omou mono kara - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋風の吹けばさすがにわびしきは
世のことわりと思ふものから

Roma-ji: Akikaze no fukeba sasuga ni wabishiki wa yo no kotowari to omou mono kara
English Translation: When the autumn wind
blows, it is desolate still,
even so for me—
though I know that this is just
the way of all the world
Meaning: When the autumn wind blows, I feel desolate even so—though I tell myself it is only the way of the world.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems I 250

Headnote: "Having something on the mind."
The poet says that when the autumn wind blows, it feels desolate even so, though one knows it is the way of the world. Knowing that autumn's coming, and the shifting of hearts, are the way of things, the poet still cannot hold back a sense of loneliness.
According to the headnote, it was composed when the poet had cares on the mind. With the sequence of Tanabata poems concluded, the book returns from this poem to poems on the autumn wind.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Akikaze no," means "the autumn wind," recalling the autumn wind poems near the head of this book, such as 221. "Aki" carries an echo of "aki," weariness.
In the second line, "sasuga ni" means "even so, after all."
The third line, "wabishiki wa," means "that it is desolate."
The fourth line, "yo no kotowari to," means "that it is the way of the world," referring to the turning of the seasons and the shifting of human hearts.
In the last line, "mono kara" is an adversative conjunctive particle: "though I think so." It is the same last line as 226 of this book, and it stands in inversion with the upper verses.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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