朝ぼらけ有明の月と見るまでに
吉野のさとに降れる白雪
吉野のさとに降れる白雪
- Roma-ji
-
Asaborake ariake no tsuki to miru made ni
Yoshino no sato ni fureru shirayuki - English Translation
-
at break of morning
as though it were the lingering moon
of the dawn-lit sky—
in Yoshino village falls
a deep white snow all around
- Meaning
- At daybreak, it seems like the lingering moon of dawn—the white snow falling in Yoshino village shines so brightly.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
This poem was composed when the poet had gone down to Yamato Province (present-day Nara) and saw falling snow.
“The lingering moon” refers to the moon that remains in the sky at dawn; the poem expresses the beauty of the scene, where the brightness of the snow is mistaken for that moonlight.
This poem is also included in the Hyakunin Isshu.
- Author
- Sakanoue no Koreyuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- though it is winter from the sky flowers scatter down— is it that beyond those clouds, far out of sight, spring has already come to be
- in winter’s seclusion never had I thought such a sight— through these trees before me as though they were blossoms snow falls down in full display
- before it melts away fall yet again, pile ever deep— O drifting spring haze, if once you rise into the sky such snow will seldom meet my eyes
- plum blossoms or not they cannot be told apart now— from the distant sky thick-clouding snow falls everywhere covering all in equal white