花すすきほに出づることもなきものを
まだき吹きぬるあきの風かな
まだき吹きぬるあきの風かな
- Roma-ji
-
Hanasusuki ho ni izuru koto mo naki mono o mataki fukinuru aki no kaze kana
- English Translation
-
Like pampas grass
not yet sending forth its plumes,
our love not yet shown—
and already it has blown,
the wind of autumn's weariness
- Meaning
- Our love has not yet shown itself, like pampas grass that has not put forth its plumes, and already the autumn wind—the wind of your weariness—has begun to blow.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems IV 840
Headnote: "When someone she had been meeting in deep secrecy seemed to grow careless."
The poet says that their love has not yet come into the open like pampas grass putting forth its plumes, and already the autumn wind has blown. Joining "aki," autumn, with "aki," weariness, she laments that the other's heart has cooled before their hidden love has even shown itself.
According to the headnote, the poem was composed when someone she had been intimate with in deep secrecy seemed to grow neglectful. In this book, poems singing of autumn images continue from this poem through 846.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Hanasusuki," means "pampas grass in plume," leading into "ho" in the second line.
The second line, "ho ni izuru koto mo," means "coming into plume," with "ho" meaning both the "plume" of pampas grass and "the surface," so that love becomes visible. It is a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
The third line, "naki mono o," means "though it has not," with "mono o" adversative.
The fourth line, "mataki fukinuru," means "already it has blown," "mataki" meaning before the proper time.
The last line, "aki no kaze kana," means "the autumn wind," with "aki" meaning both "autumn" and "weariness." "Aki tote ya," the first line of 824 in this book, uses the same pivot word, and together with "akikaze no," the first line of 846, the autumn wind frames the beginning and end of this autumn sequence.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Mogamigawa fukaki ni mo aezu inafune no kokoro karoku mo kaeru naru kana
- Next Poem
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Mata sarishi aki wa kinuredo mishi hito no kokoro wa yoso ni nari mo yuku kana