Nado sara ni aki ka to towamu karanishiki Tatsuta no yama no momiji suru yo o - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

などさらに秋かと問はむ唐錦
たつたの山の紅葉する世を

Roma-ji: Nado sara ni aki ka to towamu karanishiki Tatsuta no yama no momiji suru yo o
English Translation: Why should I ask now
whether autumn has come yet,
in a season when
Tatsuta, where brocade is cut,
has turned to autumn colors
Meaning: Why should I ask now whether autumn has come, in a season when Mount Tatsuta, where brocade is cut, has turned to autumn colors?
Commentary: Book Seven Autumn Poems III 389

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet asks why, in this season when Mount Tatsuta turns to autumn colors, there should be any need to ask whether autumn has come. One look at the colored hills makes it plain, and the poem praises the splendor of the leaves.
Like 385 of this book, it uses the phrase "karanishiki Tatsuta no yama."
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, "Nado sara ni," means "why now."
In the second line, "mu" is an auxiliary of conjecture that, with "nado" in the first line, forms a rhetorical question: "why ask whether it is autumn?—there is no need." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "karanishiki," brocade from China, is a pillow word for "tatsu," since brocade is cut.
In the fourth line, "tatsu" is a pivot word meaning both "to cut" brocade and the place name "Tatsuta."
In the last line, "yo" means a season, a time: "in a time when it turns to autumn colors." It stands in inversion with the second line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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