Mimuroyama momiji chirurashi kannazuki tatsuta no kawa ni nishiki orikaku

三室山紅葉散るらし神無月
竜田の川に錦織りかく

Roma-ji: Mimuroyama momiji chirurashi kannazuki tatsuta no kawa ni nishiki orikaku
English Translation: On Mimuro Hill
the maple leaves must be falling;
in the godless month
across the Tatsuta River
a brocade is being woven.
Meaning: On Mount Mimuro the crimson leaves must be falling; now in the tenth month, a brocade is woven across the Tatsuta River.
Commentary: Winter Poems 319

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From among poems on early winter"
In the tenth month, seeing crimson leaves flowing down the Tatsuta River as if a brocade had been woven over it, the poet surmises that the leaves must be falling on Mount Mimuro upstream. Likening the leaves on the water to brocade, he sings a scene of early winter in vivid color.
The poem draws on an anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem in which leaves flowing down the Tatsuta River tell of showers on Mount Mimuro, using the same pairing of river and mountain.

Line 1 names Mount Mimuro beside the Tatsuta River in Yamato, a poetic place in the same area as the Kannabi of the preceding poem.
Line 2: rashi is a conjecture based on evidence, and the poem pauses here. Like "a storm must be blowing" in 317, it infers the state of the mountain from the leaves on the river.
Line 3, kannazuki, is the tenth lunar month. The next poems, 320 and 321, open with the same word.
Line 4 names the Tatsuta River in Yamato, famous for its autumn leaves.
Line 5 likens the leaves covering the river to a brocade woven and hung across it.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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