Mukashi omou aki no nezame no toko no ue ni honoka ni kayou mine no akikaze

昔思ふ秋の寝覚めの床の上に
ほのかに通ふ峰の秋風

Roma-ji: Mukashi omou aki no nezame no toko no ue ni honoka ni kayou mine no akikaze
English Translation: Musing on the past,
waking in the autumn night
upon my bed,
faintly there it comes to me,
the wind of autumn from the peaks.
Meaning: Upon my bed, awake in the autumn night and thinking of the past, I feel the autumn wind from the peaks faintly drifting in.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 268

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Autumn poems"
As the poet lies awake in bed on an autumn night remembering the past, the autumn wind blowing down from the peaks drifts faintly in. He portrays the stillness of a late night sunk in nostalgia through the faint touch of the wind.
Line 1 is the same as the opening of Fujiwara no Shunzei's Shin Kokin Wakashū poem asking the mountain hototogisu not to add its tears to the night rain on his grass hut as he remembers the past. The Teika text differs in line 3.

Line 1, "remembering the past," is hypermetric.
Line 2 refers to waking suddenly on an autumn night.
Line 3, "upon my bed," is hypermetric.
Line 4 means "faintly drifting in."
Line 5 ends on a noun, giving last the wind that reaches the bed. The night of lamenting sleeping alone in the preceding poem, 267, becomes here a night of waking to memories of the past, with the autumn wind running through both poems.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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