Makura ni mo sode ni mo namida tsurara ite musubanu yume o tou arashi kana

English Translation

On my pillow, on my sleeves,
my tears have frozen
into ice,
and to the dreams I cannot form
the storm wind comes to call

Meaning

On my pillow and on my sleeves my tears have frozen into ice, and the storm wind comes calling upon dreams that I cannot even begin to dream.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 633

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifth poem of the ice sequence. With tears frozen on pillow and sleeves so that sleep will not come, the storm wind visits dreams that cannot be formed. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author is not named in the original and continues from the preceding poem as Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. A son of the Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to Regent and Chancellor and wrote the Japanese preface to the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a winter night, and the place is a bedchamber.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "makura ni mo," means "on my pillow too."
The second line, "sode ni mo namida," means "and on my sleeves my tears," repeating "ni mo" from the first line to show tears reaching everywhere.
The third line, "tsurara ite," means "have frozen into ice," with "iru" meaning for ice to form.
The fourth line, "musubanu yume o," means "the dreams I cannot form." "To form a dream" means to dream, and the line says that in cold and grief bitter enough to freeze tears, the speaker cannot sleep and so cannot dream. "Musubu," to bind or form, is an associated word for "tsurara," ice, in the third line, setting up the contrast that ice forms but dreams do not.
The last line, "tou arashi kana," means "the storm wind that comes calling," closing with the exclamatory particle "kana." The poem sings of the loneliness of a night on which no dream can be formed and only the storm comes to call. From the thin ice lodging foam in the preceding poem, the scene of ice moves to frozen tears in the bedchamber, and the next poem, 634, returns to ice and water among the rocks.

Author

Fujiwara no Yoshitsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other