秋風の憂き人よりもつらきかな
恋せよとては吹かざらめども
恋せよとては吹かざらめども
- Roma-ji
-
Akikaze no uki hito yori mo tsuraki kana koi seyo tote wa fukazarame domo
- English Translation
-
The autumn wind is
crueler even than the one
so cold to me—
though it surely does not blow
to tell me, "Fall in love"
- Meaning
- The autumn wind is crueler even than my cold-hearted love—though surely it does not blow to tell me, "Fall in love."
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 877
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The autumn wind is crueler than my heartless love, he says, though surely it does not blow to tell me to love. Because the piercing autumn wind stirs his longing, the wind feels crueler to him than his cold beloved. Though reason tells him the wind can have no designs of love, the poem shows a heart that is nonetheless shaken into longing by it.
The author, "Kūnin Hōshi," was a monk of the late Heian period. The details of his career are not clear.
First line, "akikaze no": the autumn wind that blows piercingly, sung as something that invites brooding.
Second line, "uki hito yori mo": "uki hito" is the heartless beloved, and "yori" a particle of comparison.
Third line, "tsuraki kana": "kana" is exclamatory, "how cruel it is." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "koi seyo tote wa": "tote" means "saying," "saying 'fall in love.'" The autumn wind is personified.
Fifth line, "fukazarame domo": "zara" is the negative auxiliary, "me" the perfective of the conjectural "mu," and "domo" adversative, "though it surely does not blow so." Denying it in reason, it closes on a heart that resents the autumn wind for stirring its love.
- Author
- Kūnin
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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