Akikaze no kusaba soyogite fuku nae ni honoka ni shitsuru higurashi no koe - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋風の草葉そよぎて吹くなへに
ほのかにしつるひぐらしの声

Roma-ji: Akikaze no kusaba soyogite fuku nae ni honoka ni shitsuru higurashi no koe
English Translation: As the autumn wind
sets the grass and leaves astir,
blowing all the while,
faintly there has come to me
the evening cicada's voice
Meaning: As the autumn wind blows, rustling the grass and leaves, faintly there comes the voice of the evening cicada.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems I 253

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that as the autumn wind blows, rustling the grass and leaves, the voice of the evening cicada faintly reaches the ear. Layering the rustle of grass and leaves with the faint cry of the cicada, it paints the quiet scene of an autumn evening.
Ki no Tsurayuki's poems on the evening cicada follow from the next poem, and this poem leads into them.
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," taking up "akikaze fuku to" in the preceding poem, 252.
The second line, "kusaba soyogite," means "rustling the grass and leaves," expressing the sound of leaves stirred by the wind.
In the third line, "nae ni" is a conjunctive particle meaning "together with, as." The next poem, 254, uses the same word in "nakitsuru nae ni."
The fourth line, "honoka ni shitsuru," means "that faintly sounded," with "tsuru" the attributive form of the completive auxiliary "tsu."
The last line, "higurashi no koe," ends on a noun so that the faint voice lingers. The next two poems, 254 and 255, both take up its voice with the first line "higurashi no."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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