秋風になに匂ふらむ藤袴
主は古りにし宿と知らずや
主は古りにし宿と知らずや
- Roma-ji
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Akikaze ni nani niouramu fujibakama nushi wa furinishi yado to shirazu ya
- English Translation
-
In the autumn wind
why do you breathe such fragrance,
O fujibakama?
Do you not know your master
long has left this ruined house?
- Meaning
- Why do you send out such fragrance in the autumn wind, O fujibakama? Do you not know that this house's master is long gone?
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 216
Headnote: "On seeing fujibakama blooming before a ruined hut when I went out hawking to a place called Togami-ga-hara"
When the poet went out hawking to a place called Togami-ga-hara, he saw fujibakama blooming in front of a ruined hut. He questions the flower, which sends out its fragrance in the autumn wind not knowing that the hut's master is gone, and portrays the contrast between the passing of human life and the flower that blooms unchanged.
The Ruijū text's headnote differs slightly and writes fujibakama as "thoroughwort." Togami-ga-hara is thought to be a place in Sagami, and the poem seems to come from an actual outing by the poet, who lived in Kamakura.
Line 1 means "in the autumn wind."
Line 2: nani means "why," and together with the present conjectural ramu asks "why are you fragrant?"; the poem pauses here.
Line 3 sets the fujibakama as the one addressed; it is the same flower as at the opening of the preceding poem, 215, so both poems sing of fujibakama.
Line 4, "the master has grown old and gone," takes up the "owner" of the fujibakama asked about in the preceding poem.
Line 5: ya is interrogative, asking "do you not know it is a ruined house?" The preceding poem asked who the owner was and got no answer; here the poet tells the flower that this house has no master, so the two stand like question and answer.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Fujibakama kite nugikakeshi nushi ya tare toedo kotaezu nobe no akikaze
- Next Poem
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Yoso ni mite orade wa sugiji ominaeshi na o mutsumajimi tsuyu ni nuru tomo