霜結ぶ袖の片敷きうちとけて
寝ぬ夜の月の影ぞ寒けき
寝ぬ夜の月の影ぞ寒けき
- Roma-ji
-
Shimo musubu sode no katashiki uchitokete nenu yo no tsuki no kage zo samukeki
- English Translation
-
Frost binds on the sleeve
I spread alone to sleep,
and nothing thaws—
on this sleepless night the moon,
how cold its light appears!
- Meaning
- Sleeping alone on a single spread sleeve where the frost has bound hard, I cannot ease into sleep; on this sleepless night, how cold the moonlight is!
- Commentary
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Book Six Winter Poems 609
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the nineteenth poem of the winter-moon sequence. Sleeping alone on a single spread sleeve where frost has bound, the speaker cannot ease into sleep, and the poem sings of the cold of the moonlight on that night. The headnote continues from the preceding poem, and this poem was composed for the same Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Intendant of the Right Gate Guards Michitomo," is Minamoto no Michitomo. A son of the Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika, he was one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a winter night with frost binding hard, and the place is the bedchamber of one who sleeps alone.
As with the preceding poem, the direct occasion is the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds held by Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The first line, "shimo musubu," means "where frost binds hard" and modifies "sode," sleeve, in the second line.
The second line, "sode no katashiki," refers to spreading only one sleeve of one's robe to sleep on, that is, sleeping alone. As with "yado ni katashiku" in 559 of this book, it sings of the sleeve of one who sleeps alone.
In the third line, "uchitokete," "toke" carries both the heart "easing" and the "thawing" of the frost in the first line. The frost bound on the sleeve does not thaw and the heart does not ease, so the speaker cannot sleep; "musubu," to bind, and "toke," to loosen, are associated words.
The fourth line, "nenu yo no tsuki no," means "of the moon on a night without sleep," with "nu" as the attributive form of the negative auxiliary "zu." Running on from "uchitokete" in the third line, it means "not sleeping at ease."
The last line, "kage zo samukeki," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by the attributive form of the adjective "samukeshi." Where the preceding poem sang of the moon on the pillow of one woken by cold, this poem sings of the moon of one who cannot sleep at all, so that waking and sleeplessness form a pair. Like "kage no samukesa" in the last line of 607 in this book, it closes on the coldness of moonlight.
- Author
- Minamoto no Michitomo
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- In the winter-withered grove, upon the frost that lies over the rotting leaves, the moonlight has fallen— oh, the coldness of that light!
- Unable to bear the cold, I wake, and on my pillow see the light— on a night of deepest frost, the moon that lingers into dawn
- Remembering the dew where once it came to lodge and left its light, it seeks the traces in the frost— the moon on the field of reeds
- Upon her single sleeve spread out to sleep alone, does she lay the frost? Forsaken even on moonlit nights, the Lady of Uji Bridge