Ōkata ni mono omou to shimo nakarikeri tada waga tame no aki no yūgure

おほかたに物思ふとしもなかりけり
ただ我がための秋の夕暮

Roma-ji: Ōkata ni mono omou to shimo nakarikeri tada waga tame no aki no yūgure
English Translation: It was not, I find,
that all the world must brood
as a common thing—
it is only meant for me,
this evening of the autumn.
Meaning: It is not, after all, that everyone broods; this autumn evening is meant for me alone.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 264

Headnote: "Composed on an autumn evening"
The poet declares that it is not that everyone broods on an autumn evening; the evening exists for him alone. The solitude of one cut off from others, bearing the full sorrow of autumn dusk by himself, is strongly expressed.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the spirit of evening." The conceit of lamenting that autumn exists for oneself alone seems to turn inside out Ōe no Chisato's Kokin Wakashū poem, which says that gazing at the moon brings a thousand sorrows, though autumn is not his alone.

Line 1, ōkata ni, means "commonly, as people generally do."
Line 2: shimo is emphatic, "it is not that one broods."
Line 3: keri expresses realization, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "only for my sake."
Line 5 ends on a noun, the same last line as the two preceding poems. Like "it is I who brood" in 258, it sings of the feeling that the poet himself broods most deeply of all.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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