Monogoto ni aki no keshiki wa shirukeredo mazu mi ni shimu wa ogi no uwakaze - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

物ごとに秋の気色はしるけれど
まづ身にしむは荻の上風

Roma-ji: Monogoto ni aki no keshiki wa shirukeredo mazu mi ni shimu wa ogi no uwakaze
English Translation: In each and every thing
the signs of autumn
are plain to see, and yet
what first pierces me is the wind
across the tops of the reeds
Meaning: The signs of autumn are plain in everything, yet what pierces me first of all is the wind blowing over the tops of the reeds.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 233

Headnote: "Composed on reeds for the garden-plant contest of Ikuhōmon'in"
Composed on "reeds" for a garden-plant contest held for Ikuhōmon'in, Princess Teishi, daughter of Emperor Shirakawa. The signs of autumn are clear in everything the eye falls on, yet what pierces the poet first of all is the wind across the tops of the reed leaves. From among the many signs of autumn he names the wind over the reeds as the first, taking it as the sharpest herald of the season.
The author, "Minister of the Treasury Yukimune," is Minamoto no Yukimune, son of Consultant Minamoto no Motohira, who rose to Minister of the Treasury.
A garden-plant contest was an event in which participants brought flowers and grasses from their gardens, each accompanied by a poem, and competed to judge which was finer.

First line, "monogoto ni": "in everything," in all that meets the eye.
Second line, "aki no keshiki wa": "keshiki" means appearance or signs. Following "keshiki no mori" in 228 of this book, it speaks of autumn's "keshiki."
Third line, "shirukeredo": "shirushi" means plain to see, and "do" is concessive.
Fourth line, "mazu mi ni shimu wa": "mazu" means "before anything else." It takes up "oto zo mi ni shimu" from the preceding poem, 232.
Fifth line, "ogi no uwakaze": ends on a noun, the wind blowing across the tops of the reed leaves. Poem 290 of this book ends with the same line, on the reed wind of a moonlit night, and it also echoes "ogi no hakaze" in the opening poem, 226.
Author: Minamoto no Yukimune
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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