Written in 887 during Michizane's first autumn in Sanuki, this is the first in a series of ten poems, each describing the suffering of local people: an elderly widower, an orphan, and so forth. This one refers to the government's registration of peasants in order to assign them land to be cultivated and taxed. In the ninth century, the system was collapsing. One reason was that peasants fled to avoid taxes, although flight did not always solve their problem, as Michizane notes.
Who feels the cold air first?
First cold is the man who fled but was sent back.
I search the registers but nowhere is a new returnee.
Asking his name, I determine his former status.
The land in his native village is barren,
his fate always to be poor.
If men are not treated compassionately,
surely many will continue to flee.