秋の田のかりほの宿のにほふまで
咲ける秋萩見れど飽かぬかも
咲ける秋萩見れど飽かぬかも
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no ta no kariho no yado no niou made sakeru akihagi miredo akanu kamo
- English Translation
-
In the autumn fields,
till the harvest hut is bright
with all their color,
the bush clover blooms—I gaze
and never tire of gazing
- Meaning
- The autumn bush clover blooms until even the harvest hut in the rice fields glows with its color—however long I gaze, I never tire of it.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Autumn Poems II 295
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that the autumn bush clover, blooming until even the makeshift hut that guards the rice fields glows with its color, never tires the eye however long one gazes. It praises the full bloom of bush clover that lends beauty even to a humble hut.
A poem of almost the same form appears among the anonymous poems of Book Ten of the Man'yōshū. Emperor Tenji's poem, 302 of this book, also opens with the same phrase, "aki no ta no kariho no."
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the poet as "yomibito mo," which is treated here as "anonymous."
The first line, "Aki no ta no," means "of the ripened autumn fields." 302 of this book opens with the same line.
In the second line, "kariho" is a pivot word joining "kariho," a makeshift hut for guarding the fields, and "kariho," reaped ears of rice.
In the third line, "niou" means "to glow with color": "until the hut glows with the color of the flowers."
In the fourth line, "ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri": "the bush clover in bloom." Poems on the autumn bush clover continue after this in the book.
In the last line, "kamo" is an exclamatory particle: "however I gaze, I do not tire."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Kurehateba tsuki mo matsubeshi ominaeshi ame yamete to wa omowazaranan
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Aki no yo o madoromazu nomi akasu mi wa yumeji to dani zo tanomazarikeru