Kotogoto ni kanashikarikeri mube shi koso aki no kokoro o urei to iikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

事ごとに悲しかりけりむべしこそ
秋の心を愁へといひけれ

Roma-ji: Kotogoto ni kanashikarikeri mube shi koso aki no kokoro o urei to iikere
English Translation: In all things alike
how sad it is, I find:
no wonder, indeed,
that "heart" beneath "autumn"
they write as "grief"
Meaning: In autumn everything is sad. No wonder, then, that they write "heart" beneath "autumn" and call it "grief."
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 351

Headnote: "Composed as an autumn poem when a hundred-poem sequence was presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku"
An autumn poem composed for a hundred-poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku. In autumn everything is sad, the poet says, and that is surely why "heart" written beneath "autumn" makes the character for "grief." Through the conceit of reading meaning from the parts of a Chinese character, he finds autumn's sorrow in the very makeup of the written word.
The author, "Fujiwara no Suemichi Ason," was the son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Munemichi. Known as a master of the biwa and the koto, he was one of the authors of Sutoku's hundred-poem sequence, known as the Kyūan Hyakushu.
The conceit of splitting a character has a precedent in Fun'ya no Yasuhide's Kokin Wakashū poem, "Since at its blowing the autumn grasses and trees droop, no wonder they call the mountain wind the storm." This poem's "mube shi koso" also draws on Yasuhide's "mube."

First line, "kotogoto ni": "in every matter."
Second line, "kanashikarikeri": "keri" expresses realization, "how sad it is," filled with felt experience. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "mube shi koso": "mube" means "indeed, no wonder," and "shi" is an emphatic particle. The emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective form "kere" in the last line.
Fourth line, "aki no kokoro o": writing "heart" beneath the character for "autumn," describing the shape of the character.
Fifth line, "urei to iikere": closing the "koso" of the third line in the perfective form. "Autumn" and "heart" together make the character for "grief," and autumn's sorrow is read in the makeup of the word.
Author: Fujiwara no Suemichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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