[22] ふ (Fu)

 Poem Meaning and Background

A depiction of the author and
his poem by the artist Agameishi

ふくからに・あきのくさきの・しをるれば
fuku kara ni ・aki no kusaki no ・shiorureba

むべやまかぜを・あらしといふらむ

mube yama kaze o ・arashi to iuran

〜文屋 康秀  (Fun'ya no Yasuhide)

Translation

It is by its breath

That autumn's leaves of trees and grass

Are wasted and driven.

So they call this mountain wind

The wild one, the destroyer.

Meaning

    In the Heian period, poems playing off of the meaning of different parts of kanjii (Chinese characters) were in vogue.  Keeping with this fad, this poem points out how the kanji for storm, 嵐 (arashi), is made from the characters for mountain, 山 (yama), and wind, 風 (kaze). The word arashi can also mean 荒らし, which means "wild" or "destroyer". 

    In this poem, むべ(mube) is not the name of the mountain, but rather a phrase that means なるほど(naruhodo), which translates to "I see" or "indeed".    

Author

Fun'ya no Yasuhide (birth date unknown - c. 879) was a poet in the early Heian Period and is listed among both the 6 Immortals of Poetry and the 36 immortals of poetry. It is said that he had a relationship with Ono no Komachi (author of poem [9] Hanano) and that he even invited her to go with him when he received an official governmental appointment. 

His son, Fun'ya no Asayasu, was also selected as one of the 6 Immortals of Poetry and wrote poem [37] Shira.