春雨のあや織りかけし水の面に
秋は紅葉の錦をぞ敷く
秋は紅葉の錦をぞ敷く
- Roma-ji
-
Harusame no aya orikakeshi mizu no omo ni aki wa momiji no nishiki o zo shiku
- English Translation
-
Where the spring rain
wove its figured twill across
the water's surface,
now autumn spreads the crimson
brocade of fallen leaves
- Meaning
- On the water where the spring rain wove patterns like figured silk, autumn now spreads a brocade of crimson leaves.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 134
Headnote: "Composed on seeing autumn leaves flowing without a gap down the Ōi River in autumn, having been in retreat at the Hōrin Temple since spring"
The monk Dōmyō composed this in the autumn of a year in which he had been in retreat at the Hōrin Temple since spring, on seeing autumn leaves flowing without a gap down the Ōi River.
He contrasts the river surface in spring, when he began his retreat and the rain spread ripples like twill, with the surface now in autumn, covered by leaves like brocade. Depicting spring and autumn as two fabrics woven on the same water, the poem conveys the passage of time.
The first line, "harusame no," means "of the spring rain," the spring when his retreat began.
In the second line, "aya orikakeshi," aya joins figured twill and the patterned ripples on the water, an associated word with brocade in the fourth line.
The third line, "mizu no omo ni," means "on the surface of the water" of the Ōi River.
The fourth line, "aki wa momiji no," means "in autumn, the crimson leaves," set against the spring of the first line.
The last line, "nishiki o zo shiku," means "spreads a brocade," with zo resolved in the attributive shiku. The poem closes on the pairing of spring twill and autumn brocade.
- Author
- Dōmyō
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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