Aki wa inu kaze ni ko no ha wa chirihatete yama sabishikaru fuyu wa kinikeri

秋は去ぬ風に木の葉は散り果てて
山寂しかる冬は来にけり

Roma-ji: Aki wa inu kaze ni ko no ha wa chirihatete yama sabishikaru fuyu wa kinikeri
English Translation: Autumn has gone away;
in the wind the leaves of trees
have scattered, every one,
and the mountains lonely stand—
winter has come upon us.
Meaning: Autumn has gone. The wind has stripped the trees of every leaf, and winter has come, leaving the mountains desolate.
Commentary: Winter Poems 312

Headnote: "Composed on the first day of the tenth month"
This poem was composed on the first day of the tenth month, when winter begins by the lunar calendar. Autumn has gone, the wind has scattered every leaf, and winter has arrived, leaving the mountains lonely; the poet sings the turning of the season just as it is. The poem opens the winter section of Minamoto no Sanetomo's Kinkai Wakashū.
This poem was included in the Shokukokin Wakashū. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle.

Line 1, aki wa inu, means "autumn has gone," inu being the conclusive form of the verb "to go away"; the poem pauses here. It takes up poem 311, the close of Book Three, which announced "autumn has come to its close," and declares at the head of the winter section that autumn is gone.
Line 2 tells of leaves blown by the wind.
Line 3, chirihatete, means "having scattered completely."
Line 4 describes the mountains made lonely by the loss of their leaves.
Line 5: the exclamatory keri expresses the realization that winter has come. The same last line continues through the next poems, 313 to 316, so that five poems on the coming of winter stand together at the head of the section. Whereas the closing poem, 406, ends by asking where the departing year goes, this opening poem begins with autumn going away, so the opening and the close answer each other in what passes and departs.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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