み吉野の象山かげに立てる松
いく秋風にそなれ来ぬらむ
いく秋風にそなれ来ぬらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Miyoshino no Kisayamakage ni tateru matsu iku akikaze ni sonarekinuramu
- English Translation
-
In fair Yoshino
in the shade of Kisa Mountain
stands a pine tree:
by how many autumn winds
has it come to lean so low?
- Meaning
- The pine standing in the shade of Kisa Mountain in Yoshino: how many autumn winds has it weathered to have grown so bent and low?
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 110
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
This is a poem by Sone no Yoshitada. Seeing a pine in the shade of Kisa Mountain in Yoshino, he imagines from its shape the autumn winds of long years past.
The idea is to read countless autumns in the form of a pine bent low by the wind. Whereas the three preceding poems sing of the autumn wind of a single evening, this one sings of it on the long scale of many years.
The first line, "Miyoshino no," is an honorific name for Yoshino, mi being a prefix.
The second line, "Kisayamakage ni," means "in the shade of Kisa Mountain" in Yoshino, a place name known since the Man'yōshū.
The third line, "tateru matsu," means "the pine standing there," and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "iku akikaze ni," means "by how many autumn winds," iku asking the number. Against the single evening's wind of the preceding poems, it sings of the wind of years.
The last line, "sonarekinuramu," closes with the conjecture "has it come to lean so low in the wind?"
- Author
- Sone no Yoshitada
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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