人住まず荒れたる宿を来て見れば
今ぞ木の葉は錦織りける
今ぞ木の葉は錦織りける
- Roma-ji
-
Hito sumazu aretaru yado o kite mireba ima zo konoha wa nishiki orikeru
- English Translation
-
With no one living there,
when I came to see the house
fallen into ruin,
now indeed the leaves of trees
had woven a brocade
- Meaning
- When I came to see the house where no one lives and all has gone to ruin, I found that now, of all times, the leaves had woven a brocade.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Winter Poems 458
Headnote: "Coming to a house where no one lived, he wrote on an autumn leaf and sent this."
The poet says that when he came to the ruined house where no one lives, he found that now indeed the leaves had woven a brocade. In the sight of autumn leaves alone adorning, like brocade, a desolate house where no one lives, he conveys his longing for the person who once lived there.
According to the headnote, he came to a house where no one was living, wrote this on an autumn leaf and sent it. The next poem is Ise's reply, and the two form a pair of exchanged poems.
The poet, called "the Biwa Minister of the Left," is Fujiwara no Nakahira. A son of Fujiwara no Mototsune, he had Tokihira as an elder brother and Tadahira as a younger one. He rose to Minister of the Left and, because he lived at the Biwa mansion, was called the Biwa Minister of the Left. He is known to have had a love affair with Ise.
The first line, "Hito sumazu," means "where no one lives."
The second line, "aretaru yado o," means "the house gone to ruin."
The third line, "kite mireba," means "when I came and looked."
In the fourth line, "zo" is an emphatic particle: "now indeed the leaves."
The last line, "nishiki orikeru," likens the leaves to woven brocade, and its attributive "keru" answers "zo" in a kakarimusubi pattern.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Nakahira
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Chihayaburu Kamigakiyama no sakakiba wa shigure ni iro mo kawarazarikeri
- Next Poem
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Namida sae shigure ni soite furusato wa momiji no iro mo kosa masarikeri