Akikaze wa ayana na fukiso shiratsuyu no ada naru nobe no kuzu no ha no ue ni

秋風はあやなな吹きそ白露の
あだなる野辺の葛の葉の上に

Roma-ji: Akikaze wa ayana na fukiso shiratsuyu no ada naru nobe no kuzu no ha no ue ni
English Translation: Autumn wind, I pray,
do not blow so needlessly
where the pale white dew
lies so fleeting in the fields,
upon the arrowroot leaves.
Meaning: Autumn wind, do not blow so heedlessly over the arrowroot leaves in the fields, where the white dew lies so frail.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 219

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Arrowroot"
The poet calls on the autumn wind not to blow heedlessly over the arrowroot leaves of the fields, where the white dew lies so frail. Taking up the preceding poem's lament for dew that vanishes before the wind pauses, he tries to hold back the wind that scatters it.
The Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 2. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle. In the source text consulted, a character in line 2 is missing and has been supplied from the Teika text's ayana na fukiso.

Line 1 addresses the autumn wind as a person; it is the same opening as 207.
Line 2: ayana means "heedlessly, without reason," and the na ... so construction marks prohibition; the poem pauses here. Like "do not blow so hard" in 207, it begs the wind not to blow.
Line 3 is the same word as the opening of the preceding poem, 218, taking up the dew on the arrowroot leaves.
Line 4, "the fields where it lies fleeting," takes up "how fleetingly it lies" in the preceding poem.
Line 5 is hypermetric and gives last, through inversion, the place the wind should spare. The preceding poem sang of the dew vanishing, this one of the wish to protect it, and the two form a pair.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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