Mukashi omou sayo no nezame no toko saete namida mo kōru sode no ue kana

English Translation

Thinking of the past,
I wake deep in the night
in a bed grown chill,
and even my tears are freezing
upon my sleeve

Meaning

Waking in the night as I think of the past, I find my bed grown chill, and even the tears on my sleeve are freezing.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 629

Headnote: "Composed as a winter poem."
This is the first poem of the ice sequence. Waking in the night thinking of the past, the speaker finds the bed grown chill and even the tears on the sleeve freezing. According to the headnote, it was composed as a winter poem.
The author, "Prince Shukaku," is Prince Shukaku. A son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he entered Ninnaji as its imperial abbot and was called the Omuro.
The scene is late on a winter night, and the place is the bed of one who wakes in the night.
The direct occasion is composition as a winter poem.

The first line, "mukashi omou," means "thinking of the past." Poem 201 in Book Three also opens with "mukashi omou" and sings of tears in the night, so these words serve as an opening for poems of nighttime tears shed in remembrance.
The second line, "sayo no nezame no," means "waking in the night," with "sa" as a prefix that smooths the rhythm.
The third line, "toko saete," means "the bed grown chill."
The fourth line, "namida mo kōru," means "even the tears freeze," with "mo" adding "not only frost and water but even tears."
The last line, "sode no ue kana," closes with the exclamatory particle "kana." Tears shed in remembrance of the past freeze on the sleeve in the cold of a winter night, and the poem stands where the frost-and-withering sequence gives way to the ice sequence. Where 601 in this book sang of sleeves freezing while one gazed at the moon, this poem says that tears of remembrance freeze, shifting the cause of the frozen sleeve from the moon to memories of the past.

Author

Cloistered Prince Shukaku

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other