Natsugari no ogi no furue wa karenikeri mureishi tori wa sora ni ya aruran

English Translation

The old stalks of reeds
that were cut back in summer
have withered away;
the birds that flocked among them—
are they somewhere in the sky?

Meaning

The old stalks of the reeds cut back in summer have withered away. The birds that used to flock among them—are they out somewhere in the sky now?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 612

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the frost-and-withering sequence. The old stalks of the reeds cut back in summer have withered, and the speaker wonders whether the birds that flocked among them are now in the sky. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Minamoto no Shigeyuki," is Minamoto no Shigeyuki. Of the Seiwa Genji line, he is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. In his later years he went down to Mutsu in the service of the governor Fujiwara no Sanekata and died there.
The scene is winter as the grasses wither, and the place is where reeds grow.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "natsugari no," means "cut back in summer" and modifies "ogi," reeds, in the second line.
In the second line, "ogi no furue wa," "furue" means old stalks. The scene shifts from the moon and frost of the poems before to withered grasses.
The third line, "karenikeri," means "have withered away," with "keri" expressing the exclamation of awareness. The poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "mureishi tori wa," means "the birds that had flocked there," with "shi" as the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki."
The last line, "sora ni ya aruran," closes with the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary "ran," answering the interrogative particle "ya," and wonders, "are they in the sky?" The poem thinks of the whereabouts of birds left with no place to shelter once the reeds have withered, and like 606 in this book, which sang of the snipe's beds laid bare in a harvested field, it sings of birds that have lost their cover. The next poem, 613, likewise sings of cranes on a frosty night.

Author

Minamoto no Shigeyuki

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other