Kokinshu #249

A poem from the poetry contest at the house of Prince Koresada.

    As soon as it blows,
the autumn trees and grasses
    instantly wither --
that must be, yes, why they call
this mountain wind "fury"ous.

—23 February 2010, rev. 13 September 2011

Original by Fun'ya no Yasuhide. Previously posted as Hyakunin Isshu #22. On to book 5 and the second half of autumn, leading off with this introduction to the next major theme: changing vegetation. This poem is built on a mostly untranslatable kanji pun: arashi, "tempest," is a noun form of arasu, meaning "lay waste"/"devastate," but is written not with that word's kanji but one that's a compound of mountain+wind. "Furious" is the closest synonym with a destructive root I can think of; that it can be primped up as a pun is just a bonus. I have to admit, however, that getting hung up on the punny content had long prevented me from appreciating that this is otherwise a skillfully constructed poem.


fuku kara ni
aki no kusaki no
shiorureba
mube yamakaze o
arashi to iuramu

---L.