Kaze samumi konoha hareyuku yonayona ni nokoru kuma naki niwa no tsukikage

English Translation

The wind grows cold,
and night by night the leaves thin out
until the sky shows through;
leaving no shadowed corner,
the moonlight in the garden

Meaning

As the wind grows cold and the leaves thin out night after night, the moonlight in the garden leaves no corner in shadow.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 605

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifteenth poem of the winter-moon sequence. As the wind grows cold and the leaves fall night after night, the moonlight in the garden comes to reach every corner. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Princess Shikishi," is Princess Shikishi. A daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, she served as Kamo Priestess and studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei.
The scene is winter nights with a cold wind blowing, and the place is a garden lit by the moon.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "kaze samumi," means "because the wind is cold," with "... mi" expressing cause or reason.
The second line, "konoha hareyuku," means "the leaves falling and the spaces between the trees clearing." Like "kozue ni haruru" in 603 of this book, it catches the falling of leaves with the word "haru," to clear.
The third line, "yonayona ni," means "night after night," marking the passage of time as the leaves grow fewer day by day.
The fourth line, "nokoru kuma naki," means "with no shadowed place remaining." As the leaves disappear, no shadow is left where the moonlight cannot reach.
The last line, "niwa no tsukikage," closes on a noun, naming the moonlight falling in the garden. The garden moon, growing a little brighter each night, is drawn together with the thinning of the leaves, so that the pairing of falling leaves and moon that has continued since 592 in this book is sung not as a single night but as a change across many nights. Where 571 in this book heard the sound of wind in a garden stripped of leaves, this poem sees the moonlight falling into every corner of such a garden.

Author

Princess Shokushi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other