あしひきの山飛び越ゆる秋の雁
幾重の霧をしのぎ来ぬらむ
幾重の霧をしのぎ来ぬらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Ashihiki no yama tobikoyuru aki no kari ikue no kiri o shinogikinuramu
- English Translation
-
Over footsore hills
flying, crossing mountain peaks,
O geese of autumn,
through how many folds of mist
have you braved your way to come?
- Meaning
- O autumn geese flying over the mountains—through how many layers of mist must you have struggled to come here?
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 233
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on wild geese"
The poet wonders through how many layers of mist the autumn geese, flying over the mountains, must have struggled on their long journey to get here. He extends a sympathetic heart to the hardships of the geese's travel from the distant north.
In the source text consulted, a character in the last line is missing and has been supplied from the Teika text's shinogikinuramu.
Line 1, ashihiki no, is a pillow word for "mountain."
Line 2 is the same as line 2 of the preceding poem, 232, so the two stand side by side on geese crossing mountains.
Line 3 refers to the geese that come in autumn.
Line 4 means "through layer upon layer of mist." The geese that parted the white clouds on the peaks in the preceding poem here brave layers of mist, so cloud and mist pair the two poems.
Line 5 means "how they must have struggled to come," with nu marking completion and ramu present conjecture.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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