咲き初むるあしたの原の女郎花
秋を知らするつまにぞありける
秋を知らするつまにぞありける
- Roma-ji
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Sakisomuru ashita no hara no ominaeshi aki o shirasuru tsuma ni zo arikeru
- English Translation
-
Just beginning to bloom
in the morning on Ashita Plain,
the maiden flower
is the one who tells of autumn,
the bride who heralds it
- Meaning
- The maiden flower just beginning to bloom on the plain of Ashita at morning is the very sign, and the bride, that tells of autumn's coming.
- Commentary
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Book Three Autumn Poems 168
The maiden flowers just beginning to bloom on the plain of Ashita were, the poet finds, the very sign that autumn has come. Likening the flower to a woman, the poem portrays it as the herald of autumn, putting into tsuma both the sense of a beginning and that of a wife.
After the Tanabata sequence, the book moves to poems that recognize autumn's deepening through the maiden flower. The next poem, 169, also finds the look of autumn in the maiden flower, and the two form a pair.
From poem 168 through poem 173 in this book come poems that recognize the arrival of autumn in the maiden flower, the wind over the rice leaves and the scenes of mountain villages.
First line, 'sakisomuru', means beginning to bloom, showing that it is early autumn.
Second line, 'ashita no hara no', is a pivot word combining Ashita no Hara, a poetic place in Yamato, with ashita, morning.
Third line, 'ominaeshi', is one of the seven flowers of autumn, often likened to a woman because of its name.
Fourth line, 'aki o shirasuru', means that tells of autumn.
Final line, 'tsuma ni zo arikeru', is a pivot word in which tsuma means both a beginning or sign and a wife, the maiden flower seen as a woman. It is a binding in which zo closes on the attributive keru, and the line has an extra syllable.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Kaerusa wa asase mo shiraji amanogawa akanu namida ni mizu shi masaraba
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Sakinikeri kuchinashi iro no ominaeshi iwanedo shirushi aki no keshiki wa