Fune yosuru ama no kawabe no yūgure wa suzushiki kaze ya fukiwataruran

船寄する天の河辺の夕暮は
涼しき風や吹きわたるらん

Roma-ji: Fune yosuru ama no kawabe no yūgure wa suzushiki kaze ya fukiwataruran
English Translation: Where boats come to shore
on the banks of Heaven's stream,
at this evening hour,
might there be a cooling wind
blowing all along its length?
Meaning: At dusk on the banks of the River of Heaven, where the boat draws in to shore, is a cool wind blowing all across it now?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 261

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Tanabata"
This is the fourth poem in the Tanabata sequence. The poet imagines the scene in the sky: at evening on the banks of the River of Heaven, where a boat draws up for the lovers' meeting, a cool wind may be blowing across. The coolness felt on earth on an early autumn evening is imagined on the shores of the heavenly river too.
Where the earlier poems took up the day itself and the Weaver's heart, this one turns to the scene on the riverbank where the meeting will take place.

First line, “fune yosuru”: drawing a boat to shore, suggesting the Herdsman crossing the River of Heaven by boat to reach the Weaver.
Second line, “ama no kawabe no”: the banks of the River of Heaven, where the two stars meet.
Third line, “yūgure wa”: singling out the evening of the seventh day, just before the meeting.
Fourth line, “suzushiki kaze ya”: ya is a question particle answered by ran in the last line; it speaks of the coolness of the early autumn evening wind.
Fifth line, “fukiwataruran”: ran is present conjecture, in the attributive form required by ya, guessing at an unseen scene in the heavens.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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