Katashiki no sode o ya shimo ni kasanuran tsuki ni yogaruru uji no hashihime

English Translation

Upon her single sleeve
spread out to sleep alone,
does she lay the frost?
Forsaken even on moonlit nights,
the Lady of Uji Bridge

Meaning

Does she lay the frost upon the single sleeve she spreads to sleep alone—the Lady of Uji Bridge, whom no one visits even on moonlit nights?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 611

Headnote: "Composed on the theme 'Frost on a Bridge.'"
This is the first poem of the frost-and-withering sequence. The speaker imagines the Lady of Uji Bridge, forsaken even on moonlit nights, laying frost upon the single sleeve she spreads to sleep alone. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Frost on a Bridge."
The author, "Hōin Kōsei," is Kōsei. "Hōin" is the highest clerical rank, and Kōsei was a monk who held it.
The scene is a frosty winter night under the moon, and the place is Uji Bridge in Yamashiro Province.
The direct occasion is the topic "Frost on a Bridge."
The Lady of Uji Bridge was held to be the goddess guarding the bridge, and since the anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem "Samushiro ni koromo katashiki koyoi mo ya ware o matsuramu Uji no hashihime" (Spreading her robe alone on a narrow mat, does she wait for me again tonight, the Lady of Uji Bridge?), she has been sung as a woman sleeping alone as she waits for her lover.

The first line, "katashiki no," refers to spreading only one sleeve of one's robe to sleep alone. Taking up "sode no katashiki" in 609 of this book, it continues the image of the lonely sleeper's sleeve.
In the second line, "sode o ya shimo ni," "ya" is an interrogative particle corresponding to "ran" in the third line.
The third line, "kasanuran," means "does she lay it over?" with "ran" in the attributive form of the auxiliary of present conjecture. The speaker imagines frost layered upon the lonely sleeve, presenting the "frost" of the topic. The poem breaks after the third line, in inverted relation to the lower verse.
In the fourth line, "tsuki ni yogaruru," "yogaru" means that a man's night visits have ceased. It says that no one comes even on bright moonlit nights.
The last line, "uji no hashihime," closes on a noun and presents the "bridge" of the topic. The autumn Lady of the Bridge sung in 420 of Book Four as "spreading the moonlight for her sleeve" is here sung as a winter Lady layering frost, so that the pairing of moon and lonely sleeve is carried from autumn into winter.

Author

Kōsei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other