Haru kureba sode no kōri mo tokenikeri morikuru tsuki no yadoru bakari ni - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春来れば袖の氷もとけにけり
漏りくる月の宿るばかりに

Roma-ji: Haru kureba sode no kōri mo tokenikeri morikuru tsuki no yadoru bakari ni
English Translation: Now that spring has come
the ice upon my sleeves, too,
has melted away—
enough that the moon's light, seeping in,
comes to lodge upon them there.
Meaning: Now that spring has come, even the ice on my sleeves, frozen from my tears, has melted—so much so that the moonlight seeping in comes to lodge upon them.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1440

Headnote: "On my sleeves being wet on a night when the moon was bright."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on the coming of spring. With spring's arrival, the ice of tears frozen on the sleeves has melted, so that the moonlight seeping in is reflected there. According to the headnote, it was composed on a bright moonlit night when the poet's sleeves were wet with tears.
The author, "Archbishop Gyōson," was the son of Consultant Minamoto no Motohira. A monk of Onjōji, he was known as an ascetic of the mountain practice who trained repeatedly at Ōmine and Katsuragi, and he became head of the Tendai school and archbishop.

The first line, "haru kureba," adds "ba" to the perfective form to state a fixed condition: "because spring has come."
The second line, "sode no kōri mo," refers to sleeves wet with tears that froze in the winter cold. Like the "icicles of tears" of 1436, the opening poem of this book, it follows the conceit that frozen tears melt with spring.
The third line, "tokenikeri," is the same line as the third line of 1436. Repeating the line of the sequence's first poem, it binds the sequence together with the melting of the ice of tears in spring. The poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "morikuru tsuki no," refers to the moonlight seeping in through gaps. It takes up the bright moonlit night of the headnote.
In the last line, "yadoru bakari ni," "yadoru" means that the light is reflected. Since the ice has melted and the tears have turned to water again, the moonlight is now reflected in them, showing how many tears wet the sleeves.
Author: Gyōson
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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