Na o kikeba mukashi nagara no yama naredo shigururu aki wa iro masarikeri - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

名を聞けば昔ながらの山なれど
時雨るる秋は色まさりけり

Roma-ji: Na o kikeba mukashi nagara no yama naredo shigururu aki wa iro masarikeri
English Translation: Hearing of its name,
the hill is just as of old,
Nagara Hill, and yet
when the autumn showers fall
it deepens in its colors.
Meaning: To hear its name, Mount Nagara is a hill that stays just as it was of old, yet in autumn, when the cold showers fall, its colors grow ever deeper.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 198

Headnote: "For a folding screen at the house of the Nishinomiya Minister of the Left, at a scene of women in traveling dress crossing the Shiga mountain pass among autumn leaves"
The name of Mount Nagara suggests something unchanged since long ago, yet in autumn, when showers fall, its leaves deepen in color, so that it does not stay as it was but grows more beautiful. With "nagara" meaning both Mount Nagara and "just as of old," the poem portrays the contrast between an unchanging name and changing colors. According to the headnote, it accompanied a scene on a folding screen at the house of the Nishinomiya Minister of the Left, that is, Minamoto no Takaakira, showing women in traveling dress crossing the Shiga pass amid autumn leaves.
The author, written as Shitagau, is Minamoto no Shitagō. Of the Saga Genji line, he was a scholar and poet of the mid-Heian period. As one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber he took part in compiling the Gosenshū, and he compiled the dictionary Wamyō Ruijushō. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "na o kikeba," means "when I hear its name."
Second line, "mukashi nagara no," is a pivot word in which "nagara" means both "just as of old" and the name of Mount Nagara in Ōmi Province.
Third line, "yama naredo," means "though it is such a hill," with the concessive particle "do."
Fourth line, "shigururu aki wa," means "in autumn when the showers fall." The showers that were said to hasten the autumn leaves in 138 of this book are sung of here, too, as deepening their color.
Final line, "iro masarikeri," means "its colors have deepened," with "keri" expressing the exclamation of realization. The poem closes on the contrast between a name that speaks of changelessness and a mountain whose colors deepen in autumn.
Author: Minamoto no Shitagō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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