Kirigirisu yosamu ni naru o tsugegao ni makura no moto ni kitsutsu naku nari

きりぎりす夜寒になるを告げ顔に
枕のもとに来つつ鳴くなり

Roma-ji: Kirigirisu yosamu ni naru o tsugegao ni makura no moto ni kitsutsu naku nari
English Translation: Seeming as if to tell
that the nights are growing cold,
the cricket comes
to my pillow's very side,
and comes again and sings.
Meaning: As if to let me know that the nights are turning cold, the cricket keeps coming right to my pillow to sing.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 455

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed poems on insects"
This is the eleventh poem in the insect series. With the look of one telling him that the season of cold nights has come, the cricket comes right up to the pillow where he sleeps and sings. The insect that, as autumn deepens, comes even inside the house to sing is pictured as a messenger announcing the change of season.
Like 442, with its nights growing cold for one sleeping alone, it sings of the cold of night, catching the deepening of autumn in the cricket drawing near human dwellings to escape the cold.

First line, “kirigirisu”: the cricket.
Second line, “yosamu ni naru o”: that the season of cold nights has come.
Third line, “tsugegao ni”: with the look of one telling, personifying the cricket.
Fourth line, “makura no moto ni”: right by my pillow, showing the insect has come indoors.
Fifth line, “kitsutsu naku nari”: tsutsu shows repetition and nari infers from sound, it seems to come again and again to sing.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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