My favorite poem related to fall in the Hyakunin Isshu is this one:
| Japanese | Romanization | Translation |
| 寂しさに | Sabishisa ni | When, from loneliness |
| 宿を立出て | Yado wo tachi idete | I stand up and leave my hut |
| ながむれば | Nagamureba | and look distractedly about: |
| いづこもおなじ | Izuko mo onaji | everywhere it is the same |
| 秋の夕暮 | Aki no yugure | evening in Autumn. |
The author of this poem is a monk named Ryosen Hōshi (良暹法師, “Dharma Master Ryosen) who supposedly composed it while doing austerities in a remote hut outside the capitol.
The notion of “Autumn Sunset” appears a lot in Japanese poetry, but apparently its meaning differs depending on the time and place. Ryosen Hoshi gives a more melancholy, almost Buddhist, tone implying that the world around him is declining into winter and possibly, metaphorically declining in a general Buddhist sense. However, Sei Shonagon (poem 62) also wrote about Autumn Sunset in her Pillow Book, but used it to describe crows and wild-geese flying
An Autumn Sunset means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but it still is significant one way or another. For me, I tend to like Ryosen’s imagery the best, and it’s the one I imagine whenever I read this poem.
The Hyakunin Isshu 
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