Akihagi no shitaba no momiji utsuroinu nagatsuki no yo no kaze no samusa ni

秋萩の下葉の紅葉うつろひぬ
長月の夜の風の寒さに

Roma-ji: Akihagi no shitaba no momiji utsuroinu nagatsuki no yo no kaze no samusa ni
English Translation: Of the autumn clover
the reddened lower leaves
have faded now—
in the coldness of the wind
on the nights of the ninth month.
Meaning: The reddened lower leaves of the autumn bush clover have faded, in the cold of the wind on nights of the ninth month.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 308

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of late autumn"
The reddened lower leaves of the autumn bush clover have faded in the cold of the wind on nights of the ninth month. In the waning of the clover leaves that adorned autumn's height, the poet senses the cold of autumn's end.
The Ruijū text titles this and the next two poems "Autumn poems." According to the source's note, line 3 read utsuroi in the original and the editor emended it to utsuroinu following the Ruijū text; this edition follows that emendation.

Line 1 names the autumn bush clover.
Line 2 refers to the colored lower leaves of the clover. Poem 204 sang of the lower leaves "not yet changed," and here those lower leaves have faded, so the beginning and end of autumn answer each other in the same leaves.
Line 3: nu marks completion, "have faded," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "of the nights of the ninth month," the last month of autumn.
Line 5 gives last, through inversion, the cause of the fading. Following the wind that withers the kudzu in the preceding poem, 307, this one sings of the wind that fades the clover's lower leaves.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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