Iku aki ni ware ainuran nagatsuki no kokonoka ni tsumu yae no shiragiku

幾秋に我あひぬらん長月の
九日に摘む八重の白菊

Roma-ji: Iku aki ni ware ainuran nagatsuki no kokonoka ni tsumu yae no shiragiku
English Translation: How many autumns
have I met with, I wonder,
on the ninth day
of the long ninth month to pick
the many-petaled white chrysanthemum?
Meaning: How many autumns have I lived to see, picking the many-petaled white chrysanthemums on the ninth day of the ninth month?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 467

Headnote: "Chrysanthemums"
This poem was composed on the topic of chrysanthemums. On the ninth day of the ninth month, the Double Ninth festival, the poet picks many-petaled white chrysanthemums wishing for long life, and wonders how many autumns he has met in this way. Each time he picks the festival flowers, he thinks of the years gone by and the age he has piled up.
On the Double Ninth it was the custom to float chrysanthemum petals in wine or wipe the body with dew from the flowers to pray for long life. After the chrysanthemums linked to the land of the immortals in the preceding poem, here the festival chrysanthemums that bring long life are sung.

First line, “iku aki ni”: in how many autumns.
Second line, “ware ainuran”: nu is perfective and ran present conjecture, how many have I met; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, “nagatsuki no”: nagatsuki is an old name for the ninth month.
Fourth line, “kokonoka ni tsumu”: picked on the ninth day, the Double Ninth.
Fifth line, “yae no shiragiku”: ending on a noun, the many-petaled white chrysanthemum.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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