Kokinshu #313

Written the last day of the same [month].

    If I knew the road,
I'd find it as well and go.
    Autumn has offered
these colored autumn leaves up
as prayer strips and departed.

—16 sep '12

Original by Ôshikôchi no Mitsune, who once again gets the final word on a season. Why this one is a more appropriate ending to book V than, say, #298 is not obvious, but possibly it's the hint about his life's transience, and so of life in general.

Next: on to the short book of long winter.


michi shiraba
tazune mo yukamu
momijiba o
nusa to tamukete
aki wa inikeri

---L.