Inaba fuku kaze no oto senu yado naraba nani ni tsukete ka aki o shiramashi - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

稲葉吹く風の音せぬ宿ならば
何につけてか秋を知らまし

Roma-ji: Inaba fuku kaze no oto senu yado naraba nani ni tsukete ka aki o shiramashi
English Translation: If it were a house
where the wind that sweeps the rice
made no sound at all,
by what sign, I wonder, would
I ever come to know autumn
Meaning: If this were a house where no sound came from the wind blowing through the rice leaves, by what sign would I ever know that autumn had come?
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 171

Had the sound of the wind sweeping through the rice leaves not reached him, the poet wonders, by what else could he have known that autumn had come? The poem conveys the felt experience of autumn in a country house, where the season is announced by the wind over the rice.
Poem 173 in this book also sings of the autumn wind visiting the rice leaves of the fields by the gate, and the two echo each other in knowing autumn through the wind over the rice.
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, 'inaba fuku', means blowing over the rice leaves, setting the scene of fields in the season of harvest.
Second line, 'kaze no oto senu', means where the wind makes no sound, nu being the attributive form of the negative zu.
Third line, 'yado naraba', means if it were a house, a supposition answered by mashi in the final line.
Fourth line, 'nani ni tsukete ka', means by what, and the particle ka binds with mashi in the final line.
Final line, 'aki o shiramashi', uses the contrary-to-fact auxiliary mashi: could I have known autumn?
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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