事しげき世を逃れにし山里に
いかで尋ねて秋の来つらむ
いかで尋ねて秋の来つらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Koto shigeki yo o nogarenishi yamazato ni ikade tazunete aki no kitsuramu
- English Translation
-
To this mountain hamlet
where I fled from a world
thick with troubled things,
how did it manage to search me out—
autumn, that has come to me?
- Meaning
- To this mountain village where I fled a world thick with cares, how has autumn managed to find its way?
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 190
Headnote: "Autumn thoughts at a mountain dwelling"
The poet wonders how autumn has managed to seek him out even in the mountain village where he has hidden himself from a troublesome world. The poem conveys surprise that the season visits even one who has left the world, and a heart that cannot escape the brooding of autumn.
The Ruijū text places this poem in the miscellaneous section, and the Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 4. In the source text consulted, characters in the last line are missing, and it has been read as aki no kitsuramu from the syllable count and the flow of the words.
Line 1, koto shigeki, means "full of troublesome affairs," describing the secular world.
Line 2: nishi, from the perfective nu and the past ki, means "where I fled and have stayed."
Line 3, yamazato, is a village deep in the mountains where one lives apart from the world, presenting the "mountain dwelling" of the topic.
Line 4: ikade asks "how?" Whereas in 186 autumn came seeking dew, here autumn has come seeking a person all the way to his mountain village.
Line 5: tsuramu, from the perfective tsu and the present conjectural ramu, wonders how it has come.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Hitori yuku sode yori oku ka okuyama no koke no toboso no michi no yūtsuyu