山城の鳥羽田の面を見渡せば
ほのかに今朝ぞ秋風は吹く
ほのかに今朝ぞ秋風は吹く
- Roma-ji
-
Yamashiro no Tobata no omo o miwataseba honoka ni kesa zo akikaze wa fuku
- English Translation
-
Over Yamashiro's
fields of Tobata I gaze,
and as I look out,
faintly, this very morning,
the autumn wind is blowing
- Meaning
- When I look out across the rice fields of Tobata in Yamashiro, I can faintly tell that this morning the autumn wind is blowing.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 82
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
This poem by Sone no Yoshitada opens Book Three, the autumn book of the Shikashu. Gazing over the broad fields of Toba, the poet senses, in the slight stirring of the rice leaves, the first autumn wind blowing this morning.
The idea of knowing the wind of early autumn not by sight but by the sway of the landscape, set in a rural scene, shows Yoshitada's fresh sensibility. It is a fitting poem to open the autumn book.
The first line, "Yamashiro no," names the province and makes clear that this is a real scene south of the capital. This poem of autumn's arrival answers the final poem of the book, 139, which sings of autumn's departure.
The second line, "Tobata no omo o," means the surface of the Toba fields, the rice paddies spreading out on all sides.
The third line, "miwataseba," is a conditional of completed action: "when I looked out."
The fourth line, "honoka ni kesa zo," means "faintly, this morning indeed." The particle zo adds emphasis and is resolved by the attributive form fuku in the last line.
The last line, "akikaze wa fuku," is the wind that announces autumn. It shares the theme of autumn wind with the last line of the next poem, 83, "the first wind of autumn," and the two form the opening pair of the book.
- Author
- Sone no Yoshitada
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Mushi no ne mo mada uchitokenu kusamura ni aki o kanete mo musubu tsuyu kana
- Next Poem
-
Kimi sumaba towamashi mono o Tsu no kuni no Ikuta no mori no aki no hatsukaze