冬の夜の涙にこほる我が袖の
心とけずも見ゆる君かな
心とけずも見ゆる君かな
- Roma-ji
-
Fuyu no yo no namida ni kōru waga sode no kokoro tokezu mo miyuru kimi kana
- English Translation
-
On a winter's night
my sleeve is frozen hard
with tears of mine:
not thawing, so your heart as well
seems to me, my love, ah
- Meaning
- On this winter night my sleeve is frozen with tears, and like its ice that will not thaw, your heart, too, seems never to soften toward me.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1058
Headnote: "When heavy snow fell soon after he had returned from a woman's house."
This is the first of two poems on a heart that will not thaw, sung through winter ice. As his sleeve, frozen with tears on a winter night, will not thaw, so the beloved seems never to soften. According to the headnote, it was composed when heavy snow fell soon after he returned from a woman's house.
The author, "Middle Counselor Kanesuke," is Fujiwara no Kanesuke. A son of Fujiwara no Toshimoto, Middle Captain of the Right, he rose to Middle Counselor of the Junior Third Rank. His mansion on the bank of the Kamo River earned him the name Tsutsumi Chūnagon, the Middle Counselor of the Embankment, and he was the great-grandfather of Murasaki Shikibu.
The first line, "fuyu no yo no," means "of a winter night," a night of falling snow.
The second line, "namida ni kōru," means "frozen with tears."
The third line, "waga sode no," means "my sleeve's," and the first three lines, through ice that does not thaw on the sleeve, lead to "tokezu."
In the fourth line, "toke" pivots between ice thawing and a heart softening.
The last line, "miyuru kimi kana," means "you who seem so," closing with the exclamatory "kana." The coldness of the woman he left on a snowy night is sung through the ice on his sleeve. The next poem, by Motozane, uses the same phrase, "kokoro mo tokenu," so two poems of a heart that will not thaw in winter ice follow each other.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kanesuke
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Waga sode ni ato fumitsuke yo hamachidori au koto katashi mite mo shinoban
- Next Poem
-
Shimogōri kokoro mo tokenu fuyu no ike ni yo fukete zo naku oshi no hitokoe