Aki chikaku naru shirushi ni ya tamasudare kosu no ma tōshi kaze zo suzushiki

秋近くなるしるしにや玉すだれ
小簾の間通し風ぞ涼しき

Roma-ji: Aki chikaku naru shirushi ni ya tamasudare kosu no ma tōshi kaze zo suzushiki
English Translation: Is it a sign that
autumn now is drawing near?
Through the jewelled blinds,
through the gaps of the bamboo,
how refreshing blows the wind.
Meaning: Is it a sign that autumn is drawing near? Through the gaps in the jewelled blinds, the wind blows cool.
Commentary: Summer Poems 173

Headnote: "Composed when, some twenty days into the sixth month, the evening wind stirred the blinds"
On an evening past the twentieth of the sixth month, the poet senses in the cool wind stirring the blinds a sign that autumn is approaching. From the small change of a breeze through the blinds indoors, he delicately catches the turning of the season.
The Ruijū text's headnote differs slightly. According to the source's note, the Ruijū and Teika texts give line 3 as tamadare no and also differ in the last line. Because a character in the last line of the source text consulted could not be read, it has been supplied from the Teika text's kaze zo suzushiki.

Line 1, "drawing near to autumn," like "since autumn draws near" in 170, opens on autumn's approach.
Line 2: ya is an interrogative binding particle whose concluding word is omitted, "is it a sign that it draws near?" and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, tamasudare, is a beautiful blind adorned with jewels, an elegant name for a blind.
Line 4, "through the gaps of the blinds," precisely marks where the wind enters.
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with the attributive suzushiki. Following the autumn wind on the night robes in the preceding poem, 172, this poem sings of the wind through the evening blinds.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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