天の川水泡逆巻き行く水の
はやくも秋の立ちにけるかな
はやくも秋の立ちにけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Ama no gawa minawa sakamaki yuku mizu no hayaku mo aki no tachinikeru kana
- English Translation
-
The Milky Way's stream,
roiling up its foam as it
flows on swift and fast—
so swiftly has autumn too
risen, ah, already here.
- Meaning
- Like the waters of the River of Heaven, churning up foam as they rush along, autumn too has risen so swiftly.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 192
Headnote: "Composed at the beginning of autumn"
At the start of autumn, the poet pictures the waters of the River of Heaven rushing along, churning their foam, and from that swiftness turns to his feeling that autumn has risen so soon. He grasps the early-autumn night sky, with Tanabata approaching, as a great and violently flowing river.
Line 1, ama no gawa, likens the Milky Way to a river and announces the poems on Tanabata of early autumn. Poems on the River of Heaven and Tanabata follow from the next poem, 193.
Line 2, "churning up foam," is hypermetric.
Line 3: up to here is a preface, leading from the swiftness of the current to hayaku.
Line 4: hayaku is a pivot word meaning both the swiftness of the water and the earliness of the season.
Line 5: tachi means the start of autumn, and keru kana expresses realization. The phrase "autumn has come" from the head of the section is here recast as "autumn has risen."
- 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
- Next Poem
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Hisakata no ama no kawara o uchinagame itsuka to machishi aki mo kinikeri