Kagiri areba ikaga wa iro no masaru beki akazu shigururu Ogurayama kana

限りあればいかがは色のまさるべき
飽かず時雨るる小倉山かな

Roma-ji: Kagiri areba ikaga wa iro no masaru beki akazu shigururu Ogurayama kana
English Translation: Since there is a limit,
how could they deepen further,
colors of the leaves?
Yet the showers never tire,
falling on Mount Ogura.
Meaning: Since there is a limit, how could the color of the leaves grow any deeper? And yet the showers fall on Mount Ogura, never tiring.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 478

Headnote: "The deep color of autumn leaves"
The topic is the deep color of autumn leaves. Since there is a natural limit to the color of autumn leaves, how could it grow any deeper? Yet on Mount Ogura the showers keep falling without tiring. The depth of the leaves' color is expressed through the showers still pouring on leaves whose color has already reached its height.
Drawing on the idea that showers dye the leaves, the poem calls the showers still falling on leaves already dyed to the full insatiable. The next poem, on the same topic, imagines the color deepening further through the showers.

First line, “kagiri areba”: since there is a limit, a limit to how far the leaves can deepen in color.
Second line, “ikaga wa iro no”: ikaga wa is rhetorical, how could the color.
Third line, “masaru beki”: beki is the attributive of the conjectural beshi, answering ikaga wa, how could it deepen? It could not. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “akazu shigururu”: the showers falling on without tiring.
Fifth line, “Ogurayama kana”: Mount Ogura in Saga, west of the capital, closing with kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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