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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
恵慶法師
八重葎
しげれる宿の
さびしきに
人こそ見えね
秋は来にけり
ひとこそみ
えねあきは
きにけり
やえ
- Poem 47
- 八重葎
しげれる宿の
さびしきに
人こそ見えね 秋は来にけり
Author: Priest Egyō (dates unknown)
Source: Shūi Wakashū, Autumn
- English Verse Translation
- My little temple stands alone, No other hut is near; No one will pass to stop and praise
Its vine-grown roof, I fear, Now that the autumn's here.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Weeds grow thick around the deserted house. No one comes to visit. And yet — autumn has arrived.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Shūi Wakashū reads, "Composed at Kawara-in, where people gathered to write poems on the theme of autumn's arrival at this now-ruined mansion." Kawara-in, built by the Minister of the Left of Kawara (Poem 14), had once been a mansion of unmatched splendor, but fell into ruin after his death. His great-grandson, Priest Anpō, lived there but left the grounds untended, so that layers of vines grew wild over everything. Yet it seems that this very air of faded glory stirred the creative spirit of not a few literary figures, who gathered at Kawara-in and held poetry gatherings there time and again.
- About the Poet
- Priest Egyō is said to have been a lecturer at the provincial temple of Harima Province. He was also a friend of Priest Anpō, who lived at Kawara-in, and frequented the mansion himself.
- Priest Egyō's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
The lively days are long gone —
now only the wind stirs the grass.All that flourished fades away,
yet the seasons keep their quiet turning.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).