Toshi kureshi namida no tsurara tokenikeri koke no sode ni mo haru ya tatsuran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年暮れし涙のつららとけにけり
苔の袖にも春や立つらん

Roma-ji: Toshi kureshi namida no tsurara tokenikeri koke no sode ni mo haru ya tatsuran
English Translation: The year has ended—
the icicles of my tears
have melted away;
upon my sleeves of moss, too,
has the spring now come to stand?
Meaning: The icicles formed from the tears I shed at the year's end have melted away. Has spring begun even upon the moss-robed sleeves of one who has left the world?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1436

Headnote: "On the spirit of the beginning of spring, when a hundred-poem sequence was composed at the house of the Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor."
This is the first poem of the sequence on the coming of spring and the opening poem of Book Sixteen. The icicles of tears shed at the year's end have melted, and the poet wonders whether spring has come even to his moss sleeves, the robes of one who has taken the tonsure. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of the beginning of spring for a hundred-poem sequence held at the house of the Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. He was the son of Fujiwara no Toshitada and the father of Teika. He served as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and took the tonsure in Angen 2 (1176). He compiled the Senzai Wakashū.
The "Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor" of the headnote is Kujō Kanezane. This hundred-poem sequence refers to the Hundred-Poem Sequences at the Minister of the Right's House, held in Jishō 2 (1178) while Kanezane was Minister of the Right.

The first line, "toshi kureshi," means "the year has ended." With the past auxiliary "shi," it looks back on the close of the year now gone.
The second line, "namida no tsurara," is a hyperbole in which shed tears have frozen into icicles. It suggests tears wept over growing old at the year's end.
The third line, "tokenikeri," joins the perfective "ni" and the exclamatory "keri," expressing the feeling of noticing just now that the icicles have melted. The poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "koke no sode ni mo," the "moss sleeves" are the sleeves of the coarse robe worn by monks and recluses, here the poet's own sleeves after taking the tonsure. The particle "mo" implies "even upon me, as upon others in the world."
The last line, "haru ya tatsuran," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "ya" with the attributive form "ran." Guessing at the arrival of spring in the form of a question, it opens this book of miscellaneous poems with a poem on the beginning of spring.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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