秋風はいたくな吹きそわが宿の
もとあらの小萩散らまくも惜し
もとあらの小萩散らまくも惜し
- Roma-ji
-
Akikaze wa itaku na fukiso waga yado no motoara no kohagi chiramaku mo oshi
- English Translation
-
Autumn wind, I pray,
do not blow so hard and fierce—
here beside my house
the thin-rooted little clover,
I would grieve to see it fall.
- Meaning
- Autumn wind, do not blow so hard—I would hate to see the sparse little bush clover by my house scatter.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 207
Headnote: "Bush clover in the garden"
Loath to see the sparse little bush clover of his garden scatter, the poet calls on the autumn wind not to blow so hard. His care for the slender clover is expressed in a plain, straightforward cadence.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the bush clover of the garden." "The sparse little bush clover" is a phrase found in an anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem comparing the clover of Miyagino, waiting under heavy dew for the wind, to one waiting for a lover.
Line 1 addresses the autumn wind as if it were a person.
Line 2 uses the na ... so construction of prohibition, "do not blow so hard," and the poem pauses here. It is the same turn of phrase as "do not let the night grow late" in 202; after a poem calling on the moon, this one calls on the wind.
Line 3 means "of my house."
Line 4, motoara no kohagi, is bush clover sparse at the base. The next poem, 208, sings of the same sparse little clover, so the garden clover and the clover of an old village form a pair.
Line 5: maku is the nominal form of the conjectural mu, "its scattering," and the poem ends that this would be a pity.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Hana ni oku tsuyu o shizukemi shirasuge no mano no hagiwara shioreainikeri
- Next Poem
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Furusato no motoara no kohagi itazura ni miru hito nashimi saki ka chiruramu