Akigiri no tachinuru toki wa Kurabuyama obotsukanaku zo miewatarikeru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋霧の立ちぬる時はくらぶ山
おぼつかなくぞ見えわたりける

Roma-ji: Akigiri no tachinuru toki wa Kurabuyama obotsukanaku zo miewatarikeru
English Translation: When the autumn mist
has risen and spread about,
Mount Kurabu, dark,
looks dim and indistinct
as far as the eye can see
Meaning: When the autumn mists have risen, Mount Kurabu, already dark by its name, looks dim and blurred as far as the eye can see.
Commentary: Book Six Autumn Poems II 271

Headnote: "Presented when, in the Engi era, the emperor called for autumn poems."
The poet says that when the autumn mist has risen, Mount Kurabu, whose name suggests darkness, looks all the dimmer and more blurred. The "dark" in the mountain's name is laid over the uncertainty of a view shrouded in mist.
According to the headnote, it was presented when Emperor Daigo, in the Engi era, called for autumn poems. The book opens with a poem on autumn mist, and the next poem, under the same headnote, also sings of mist on the autumn fields.
The poet, Ki no Tsurayuki, was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa among other posts, is known as the author of the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "Akigiri no," means "the autumn mist." 338 of this book also opens with "akigiri no," singing instead of the mist clearing.
In the second line, "nuru" is the attributive form of the completive auxiliary "nu": "when it has risen."
The third line, "Kurabuyama," is a mountain north of the capital, sometimes said to be an old name for Mount Kurama. Its name echoes "kurashi," dark, suggesting the gloom of a mountain hazed in mist.
The fourth line, "obotsukanaku zo," means "dim and uncertain," with "zo" an emphatic particle.
The last line, "miewatarikeru," means "it looks so all across," and "zo" in the fourth line with the attributive "keru" forms a kakarimusubi pattern. 273 of this book closes with the same last line, "miewatarikeru," on a scene of autumn mist.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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