松風の音のみならず石走る
水にも秋はありけるものを
水にも秋はありけるものを
- Roma-ji
-
Matsukaze no oto nomi narazu ishibashiru mizu ni mo aki wa arikeru mono o
- English Translation
-
Not only the sound
of the wind among the pines,
water that rushes
over rocks holds autumn too,
I find, though I knew it not.
- Meaning
- Not only in the sound of the wind in the pines, but in the water rushing over the rocks as well, autumn was there all along.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 251
Headnote: "When people at a place called Kitashirakawa composed poems on the topic of wind in the pines like autumn, and then added the topic of autumn in the sound of water"
The headnote tells us that at a place called Kitashirakawa people composed poems on the topic of wind in the pines like autumn, and then added a second topic, autumn in the sound of water. Not only in the sound of the pine wind is autumn felt, but also in the water rushing over the rocks, the poet says, uniting the two topics in one poem.
231 of this book was also composed at Kitashirakawa and spoke of forgetting the heat in the sound of water; here the poet hears autumn in the water of the same place, treating its murmur once as coolness that drives away the heat and once as a sign of autumn.
First line, “matsukaze no”: the wind blowing through the tops of the pines, whose sound was thought to evoke the loneliness of autumn.
Second line, “oto nomi narazu”: not only the sound, taking up the first topic, wind in the pines like autumn.
Third line, “ishibashiru”: water rushing hard over rocks, modifying mizu in the fourth line.
Fourth line, “mizu ni mo aki wa”: taking up the second topic, autumn in the sound of water, saying that the water too holds autumn.
Fifth line, “arikeru mono o”: keru expresses realization, and mono o leaves a lingering feeling, as if to say and yet.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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