Okiakasu aki no wakare no sode no tsuyu shimo koso musube fuyu ya kinuran

English Translation

Awake all night long
at parting from the autumn,
dew upon my sleeve—
now it binds as frost instead;
has the winter come at last?

Meaning

I stayed awake all night grieving at my parting from the departing autumn, and the dew of tears that settled on my sleeve has now hardened into frost. Has winter come at last?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 551

Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of early winter for the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the first poem of the early-winter sequence and the opening poem of Winter Poems. Seeing that the dew on the sleeve of one who stayed awake all night grieving at the parting from autumn has hardened into frost, the speaker realizes that winter has come. According to the headnote, it was composed on the spirit of early winter for the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Toshinari," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. A son of the Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Toshitada, he rose to Senior Third Rank and Master of the Empress Dowager's Household, and took the Buddhist name Shakua when he entered holy orders. He compiled the Senzai Wakashū and was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.
The scene is the dawn when autumn departs and winter begins; no place is specified, and the focus falls on the sleeve of one who has stayed awake all night.
The direct occasion is the topic "Early Winter" in the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds, for which Retired Emperor Go-Toba commissioned hundred-poem sequences from poets in Kennin 1 (1201) and matched them in rounds.

The first line, "okiakasu," means to stay awake through the night until dawn. "Oki" carries both "rising" and the "settling" of dew, and so works as an associated word for the "dew" of the third line.
The second line, "aki no wakare no," speaks of the parting from the departing autumn. Poem 550, placed at the end of Book Five, laments "the very last of autumn," and Winter Poems opens by carrying on that same grief for autumn.
The third line, "sode no tsuyu," likens the tears shed in grieving for autumn to dew. The dew on the sleeve, so often sung in autumn poems, is carried over into frost in the next line.
The fourth line, "shimo koso musube," is a kakari-musubi construction in which the particle "koso" is answered by the perfective form "musube." It stresses that what was dew has now bound itself into frost, capturing the shift from autumn to winter at a single point on the sleeve.
The last line, "fuyu ya kinuran," closes with the conjectural "ran" in its attributive form, answering the interrogative particle "ya," and wonders whether winter has come. The change of dew into frost serves as an intimate sign of the turning season, announcing the start of the winter book. The closing poem of the book, 706, laments the passing year, so the beginning and end of the book answer each other through the shared feeling of regret for time slipping away.

Author

Fujiwara no Shunzei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other