Yūsareba nobe no akikaze mi ni shimite uzura naku nari Fukakusa no sato - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夕されば野辺の秋風身にしみて
鶉鳴くなり深草の里

Roma-ji: Yūsareba nobe no akikaze mi ni shimite uzura naku nari Fukakusa no sato
English Translation: When evening falls,
the autumn wind on the fields
pierces to my heart,
and the quail, I hear, are crying
in the village of Fukakusa
Meaning: As evening falls, the autumn wind across the fields pierces me to the bone, and I hear the quail crying in the village of Fukakusa.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 259

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as an autumn poem when presenting a hundred-poem sequence"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on "autumn" for the Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence. As evening falls, the autumn wind across the fields pierces the poet, and from the ruined village of Fukakusa comes the crying of quail. With the tale of the woman of Fukakusa in The Tales of Ise in the background, the poem portrays the loneliness of an autumn evening, rich in lingering feeling, through the piercing wind and the quail's cry. Shunzei himself is said to have regarded it as his representative poem.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Toshinari," is Fujiwara no Shunzei, son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Toshitada. He served as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and rose to Senior Third Rank. He is the very compiler of the Senzai Wakashū, chosen at the command of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
It draws on the episode in The Tales of Ise in which the woman of Fukakusa, about to be left by her lover, says she will become a quail and cry if the place turns to fields. In the quail crying in Fukakusa, now become a field, the poem glimpses the woman waiting for the man who left.

First line, "yūsareba": "when evening comes." Poems 255 and 272 of this book open with the same line, singing of autumn evenings.
Second line, "nobe no akikaze": the autumn wind across the fields, showing that the village of Fukakusa has already returned to fields.
Third line, "mi ni shimite": "piercing me." "Oto zo mi ni shimu" in 232, "mazu mi ni shimu wa" in 233 and "mi ni zo shimikeru" in 290 of this book also tell of the autumn wind piercing the body.
Fourth line, "uzura naku nari": "nari" expresses inference from sound: "the quail seem to be crying." The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "Fukakusa no sato": ends on a noun, a place in Yamashiro. With the tale of the woman of Fukakusa behind it, it conveys the loneliness of a ruined village. The next poem, 260, sings of the neighboring village of Fushimi, both poems ending with "no sato."
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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