Ima yori wa momiji no moto ni yadori seji oshimu ni tabi no hikazu henubeshi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今よりは紅葉のもとに宿りせじ
惜しむに旅の日数経ぬべし

Roma-ji: Ima yori wa momiji no moto ni yadori seji oshimu ni tabi no hikazu henubeshi
English Translation: From this day on I
will not lodge beneath the leaves
of the autumn trees,
for in grieving for their fall
all my journey's days would pass.
Meaning: From now on I will not stop for the night beneath the autumn leaves, for in grieving over their falling, the days of my journey would surely slip away.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 204

Headnote: "On a sliding-door painting at the mountain villa of the Nijō Minister of the Right at Awata, a scene of a traveler lodging beneath autumn leaves"
To lodge beneath the autumn leaves would make one so loath to leave them as they fall that the days of the journey would slip away, so the poet resolves never again to stay beneath them. The depth of his attachment to the leaves is expressed through the paradoxical resolve not to lodge there. According to the headnote, it accompanied a scene of a traveler lodging beneath autumn leaves, painted on a sliding door at the Awata mountain villa of the Nijō Minister of the Right, that is, Fujiwara no Michikane.
The author, written as Egyō Hōshi, was a monk and poet of the mid-Heian period. He associated with the poets who gathered around the monk Anpō, who lived at the Kawara Palace, and he is counted among the Later Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "ima yori wa," means "from now on."
Second line, "momiji no moto ni," means "beneath the autumn leaves."
Third line, "yadori seji," means "I will not lodge," with "ji" as an auxiliary of negative intention. The poem pauses here. Whereas 161 of this book wondered whether to sleep on the fields among the maidenflowers, this poem resolves not to lodge beneath the autumn leaves, reversing, between flowers and leaves, the heart that would stay and the heart that will not.
Fourth line, "oshimu ni tabi no," means "while grieving over them, my journey's."
Final line, "hikazu henubeshi," means "the days would surely pass," with "nubeshi" expressing strong conjecture. By inversion it gives after the fact the reason for not lodging there.
Author: Egyō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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