言の葉も霜にはあへずかれにけり
こやあきはつるしるしなるらん
こやあきはつるしるしなるらん
- Roma-ji
-
Koto no ha mo shimo ni wa aezu karenikeri ko ya aki hatsuru shirushi naruran
- English Translation
-
Your leaves of words too,
unable to bear the frost,
have withered away;
is this the sign that you have
tired of me, as autumn ends?
- Meaning
- Your leaves of words, too, unable to bear the frost, have withered and left me; is this the sign that you have wearied of me, as autumn comes to its end?
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems III 841
Headnote: "Sent to a woman"
The poem says that as leaves wither unable to bear the frost, so the words from the beloved have ceased, and asks whether this is the sign that she has wearied of one utterly, as autumn comes to its end. The headnote shows it was sent to a woman. Over the scene of leaves withered by late-autumn frost, it lays the change of heart of a woman who has stopped writing.
The author, "Yoshinobu," is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu, who served as chief priest of the Ise Shrine and, as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber, compiled the Gosenshū. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "koto no ha mo," means "words too," overlaying "ha" with leaves of trees. It uses the same words as the final line of 828, "koto no ha mo nashi."
Second line, "shimo ni wa aezu," means "unable to bear the frost."
Third line, "karenikeri," is a pivot word: "kare" means leaves "withering" and a person "parting." A caesura falls here.
Fourth line, "ko ya aki hatsuru," follows "ko ya," is this, with "aki" a pivot word meaning the season "autumn" and the heart's "weariness." It is the same pivot word as "aki" in the preceding poem, 840.
Final line, "shirushi naruran," means "is it the sign," concluding in the attributive form of the conjectural "ran" in answer to "ya."
- Author
- Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Utsurou wa shitaba bakari to mishi hodo ni yagate mo aki ni narinikeru kana
- Next Poem
-
Iro mo naki kokoro o hito ni someshi yori utsurowamu to wa waga omowanaku ni