眺むれば衣手寒し夕月夜
佐保の川原の秋の初風
佐保の川原の秋の初風
- Roma-ji
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Nagamureba koromode samushi yūzukuyo saho no kawara no aki no hatsukaze
- English Translation
-
As I gaze and muse,
how cold my sleeves have grown—
under evening moon
on the riverbanks of Saho,
the first wind of the autumn.
- Meaning
- As I gaze, lost in thought, my sleeves grow cold—under the evening moon, the first wind of autumn blows along the riverbanks of Saho.
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 181
Headnote: "The autumn wind"
On a night with an early evening moon, the poet gazes, lost in thought, across the riverbanks of Saho, and feels his sleeves grow cold in the first wind of autumn. Against the morning wind of the preceding poem, this poem catches the first wind at evening, the same wind seen at a different hour.
In the source text consulted, a character in line 3 is missing, and it has been read as yūzukuyo from the syllable count and the flow of the words.
Line 1, nagamureba, means "as I gaze lost in thought," with ba after the evaluative form marking a chance condition.
Line 2 is the same as line 4 of the preceding poem, 180, and the poem pauses here. The morning chill of that poem is taken up here as an evening chill.
Line 3, yūzukuyo, is the moon out in the evening, or such a night.
Line 4 names the riverbanks of the Saho River in Yamato, a place often sung in the Man'yōshū.
Line 5 ends on the same noun phrase as the preceding poem, running through the three opening poems.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Kinō koso natsu wa kureshika asatode no koromode samushi aki no hatsukaze
- Next Poem
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Yū sareba koromode suzushi takamado no onoe no miya no aki no hatsukaze