Momiji senu tokiwa no yama wa fuku kaze no oto ni ya aki o kikiwataruran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

紅葉せぬ常磐の山は吹く風の
音にや秋を聞きわたるらん

Roma-ji: Momiji senu tokiwa no yama wa fuku kaze no oto ni ya aki o kikiwataruran
English Translation: Tokiwa's mountain,
where the leaves will never turn,
is it by the sound
of the wind that blows that it
learns that autumn has arrived?
Meaning: Does Mount Tokiwa, whose leaves never turn, come to know of autumn by the sound of the blowing wind?
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 189

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Mount Tokiwa, evergreen as its name says and never turning color, cannot know autumn by its hues, so the poet wonders whether it learns of autumn by the sound of the blowing wind. It is a witty poem that turns its thought to how a mountain that never changes color, among mountains that do, comes to know autumn.
Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu was a poet of the mid-Heian period from the Ōnakatomi family, who served as chief priests of the Ise Shrine. As one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber he took part in compiling the Gosenshū and in reading the Man'yōshū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "momiji senu," means "whose leaves do not turn." The next poem, 190, begins with the same "momiji senu," and the two poems by the same author form a pair.
Second line, "tokiwa no yama wa," refers to Mount Tokiwa in Yamashiro, with "tokiwa" evoking what never changes.
Third line, "fuku kaze no," refers to the autumn wind blowing on the mountain.
Fourth line, "oto ni ya aki o," means "by the sound, autumn," with the questioning particle "ya," which is resolved by "ran" in the final line. Like 139 of this book, which knows autumn by the rustle of reed leaves, it is a conceit of knowing autumn through sound.
Final line, "kikiwataruran," means "does it keep hearing of it," with "ran," the attributive of the present conjectural auxiliary. Against the mountains that know autumn by the color of their leaves, this mountain without changing color knows it by sound, a contrast of presence and absence of color.
Author: Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
Source: Shui Wakashu
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