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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
能因法師
嵐吹く
三室の山の
紅葉葉は
竜田の川の
錦なりけり
たつたのか
はのにしき
なりけり
あらし
- Poem 69
- 嵐吹く
三室の山の
紅葉葉は
竜田の川の 錦なりけり
Author: Priest Nōin (988–death year unknown)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Autumn
- English Verse Translation
- The storms, which round Mount Mimuro Are wont to howl and scream, Have thickly scattered
maple leaves Upon Tatsuta's stream; Like red brocade they seem.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- The storm blows through Mimuro Mountain, and the scattered maple leaves become a brocade on the Tatsuta River.
- Commentary
- This poem was composed for a poetry contest held at Emperor Go-Reizei's court, on the set topic of "autumn leaves."
- About the Poet
- Priest Nōin was originally a student of literature, but took Buddhist vows at the age of twenty-six. He had a deep passion for utamakura — place names celebrated in classical poetry — and composed many poems while traveling throughout the country, earning him the nickname "a man of refined taste." Many anecdotes survive about him. In one, he is said to have deliberately sunburned himself before presenting a poem featuring a distant utamakura, to make it seem as though he had composed it on a journey, when in fact he had written it in Kyoto all along. In another, he is said to have dedicated a rain-prayer poem at a shrine on behalf of drought-stricken farmers, and brought rain for three days and three nights.
- Priest Nōin'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)
After the storm has passed,
the river is scattered with autumn leaves like brocade.Even in the beauty of their falling,
I find my heart completely captivated.
- 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).