Nishiki haru aki no kozue o misenu kana hedatsuru koto no yami o tsukurite

錦張る秋の梢を見せぬかな
隔つる事の闇を作りて

Roma-ji: Nishiki haru aki no kozue o misenu kana hedatsuru koto no yami o tsukurite
English Translation: Treetops of autumn,
spread like brocade on display,
it will not let me see,
fashioning a darkness here
to set itself between us.
Meaning: The mist will not let me see the autumn treetops spread like brocade, making a darkness that comes between us.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 480

Headnote: "Autumn leaves in the mist"
The topic is autumn leaves in the mist. The mist that has risen will not let the poet see the autumn treetops spread like brocade, making a darkness that comes between him and them. He resents the mist that hides the leaves as something that makes darkness in the daytime.
Like 399, which lamented that mist screened the moon from view, here the mist screens the autumn leaves. What the mist hides has shifted from the moon to the autumn leaves.

First line, “nishiki haru”: spread like brocade, likening the beauty of the colored treetops to brocade.
Second line, “aki no kozue o”: the treetops of autumn in their colors.
Third line, “misenu kana”: it will not let me see, with kana exclamatory; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “hedatsuru koto no”: that which separates, the mist coming between the viewer and the leaves.
Fifth line, “yami o tsukurite”: making a darkness, likening the mist to darkness in daytime and giving afterward by inversion the reason for the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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