Aki fuku wa ika naru iro no kaze nareba mi ni shimu bakari aware naruramu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋吹くはいかなる色の風なれば
身にしむばかりあはれなるらむ

Roma-ji: Aki fuku wa ika naru iro no kaze nareba mi ni shimu bakari aware naruramu
English Translation: The wind of autumn,
of what color can it be
that it should so
pierce me to the very bone
with sorrow's deep, aching hue?
Meaning: What color is the wind that blows in autumn, that it should seep into me so deeply with such sorrow?
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 109

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
This is a poem by Izumi Shikibu. She asks what color the autumn wind must be to pierce her so deeply.
The bold idea of asking the color of a colorless wind expresses the sorrow that the autumn wind brings home to the body. Color and shimu, which also means to dye, are associated words, so that sorrow soaks into her as color soaks into cloth. The poem shows Izumi Shikibu's keen sensibility.

The first line, "aki fuku wa," means "what blows in autumn," setting the wind as the subject.
The second line, "ika naru iro no," means "of what color," the bold notion of asking a colorless wind its color.
The third line, "kaze nareba," means "since it is a wind," leading to the conjecture about the cause in the last line.
In the fourth line, "mi ni shimu bakari," shimu is a pivot word meaning both to pierce the body and to dye, an associated word with color in the second line.
The last line, "aware naruramu," closes by asking why it is so poignantly sad.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Shika Wakashu
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