夜を寒み衣かりがね鳴くなへに
萩の下葉は色づきにけり
萩の下葉は色づきにけり
- Roma-ji
-
Yo o samumi koromo karigane naku nae ni hagi no shitaba wa irozukinikeri
- English Translation
-
The nights are so cold
I'd borrow robes, as wild geese
call across the sky,
and the lower leaves of bush clover
have taken on their colors.
- Meaning
- The nights are so cold I would borrow a robe, and as the wild geese cry, the lower leaves of the bush clover have turned to autumn colors.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1119
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that as the nights grow so cold one would borrow a robe, and the wild geese cry overhead, the lower leaves of the bush clover have turned color. Layering the chill of the night, the voices of the geese, and the coloring of the bush clover's lower leaves, it portrays deepening autumn.
Among the autumn poems of the Kokinshū is a poem whose final line is "hagi no shitaba mo utsuroinikeri."
The author, written as "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, revered in later ages as the saint of poetry. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. The Shūishū includes many poems from the Man'yōshū and the Hitomaro Collection under his name.
First line, "yo o samumi," means "since the nights are cold," with "o ... mi" a construction giving a cause.
Second line, "koromo karigane," turns on the pivot word "karigane," joining "kari," to borrow a robe, and "karigane," the cry of the wild geese. From the cold of the night it leads to the wish to borrow a robe and then turns to the geese.
Third line, "naku nae ni," means "as they cry," with "nae ni" meaning "along with."
Fourth line, "hagi no shitaba wa," is the same line as the fourth line of the preceding poem, 1118.
Final line, "irozukinikeri," is the same line as the final lines of the preceding poem, 1118, and of 1114 in this book, so two poems on the coloring of the bush clover's lower leaves stand side by side.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kono koro no akatsuki tsuyu ni waga yado no hagi no shitaba wa irozukinikeri
- Next Poem
-
Kano miyuru ikebe ni tateru sogagiku no shigemi saeda no iro no tekorasa