Aki narade tada ōkata no kaze no oto mo yūbe wa koto ni kanashiki mono o

秋ならでただおほかたの風の音も
夕べはことに悲しきものを

Roma-ji: Aki narade tada ōkata no kaze no oto mo yūbe wa koto ni kanashiki mono o
English Translation: Even not in autumn,
just the ordinary sound
of the wind that blows
in the evening, above all,
sounds so sorrowful, and yet—
Meaning: Even when it is not autumn, the sound of an ordinary wind is so especially sad at evening, and yet—
Commentary: Autumn Poems 265

Headnote: "On the theme 'Autumn wind at evening'"
The poet says that even when it is not autumn, the sound of an ordinary wind is especially sad at evening, implying how much sadder the autumn evening wind must be. Through a sentence left unfinished, he makes the reader feel deeply the sorrow of the autumn evening wind, which he never states outright.

Line 1 means "though it is not autumn."
Line 2 means "just ordinary," using the same word as the opening of the preceding poem, 264, ōkata ni.
Line 3, "even the sound of the wind," is hypermetric.
Line 4 means "in the evening especially," presenting the "evening" of the theme.
Line 5: mono o is a conjunction carrying exclamation, left trailing to suggest "how much more the autumn wind." Whereas the preceding poem claimed the autumn evening as the poet's alone, this one evokes the sorrow of the autumn evening wind from that of evening wind in any season, pairing the general and the particular.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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