Ko no ha chiri aki mo kurenishi kataoka no sabishiki mori ni fuyu wa kinikeri

木の葉散り秋も暮れにし片岡の
寂しき森に冬は来にけり

Roma-ji: Ko no ha chiri aki mo kurenishi kataoka no sabishiki mori ni fuyu wa kinikeri
English Translation: The leaves have fallen,
autumn too has passed away;
at Kataoka,
in the lonely forest there
winter has come upon us.
Meaning: The leaves have fallen and autumn has come to its end; into the lonely forest of Kataoka, winter has arrived.
Commentary: Winter Poems 313

Headnote: "From among poems on early winter"
This is one of the poems composed on early winter. The leaves have fallen and autumn has drawn to its close, and winter has come to the lonely forest of Kataoka. Taking up the loneliness of the bare mountains in the preceding poem, the poet here finds winter's arrival in the loneliness of a forest.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "A winter poem."

Line 1, "the leaves fall," takes up lines 2 and 3 of the preceding poem, "the leaves have scattered completely."
Line 2: nishi combines the continuative of the perfective nu and the attributive of the past ki, "autumn too has ended."
Line 3 names Kataoka, a low hill sloping on one side, known also as the poetic place "the Forest of Kataoka."
Line 4 is the lonely forest bare of leaves. Its loneliness echoes "the mountains lonely" of the preceding poem, the eye moving from mountain to forest.
Line 5 is the same as that of the preceding poem; this is the second of the sequence on winter's coming at the head of the section.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Aki wa inu kaze ni ko no ha wa chirihatete yama sabishikaru fuyu wa kinikeri
Next Poem: Yūzukuyo sawabe ni tateru ashitazu no naku ne kanashiki fuyu wa kinikeri