Yo no naka no hareyuku sora ni furu shimo no ukimi bakari zo okidokoro naki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中の晴れゆく空に降る霜の
憂き身ばかりぞ置き所なき

Roma-ji: Yo no naka no hareyuku sora ni furu shimo no ukimi bakari zo okidokoro naki
English Translation: Into the clearing sky
of the world, the frost comes down,
and like that frost,
this wretched self alone
has no place where it can rest.
Meaning: Like frost falling from a sky that is clearing over the world, my wretched self alone has no place to settle.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1740

Headnote: "When I presented fifty poems."
A poem on having nowhere to belong. As frost falling from a clearing sky has no place to settle, so while the world grows bright his wretched self alone has no place. He entrusts to the frost his grief at being left behind alone in a brightening world. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a set of fifty poems.
The author, "Former Archbishop Jien," is Jien. A son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane, he served four times as Tendai abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.

The first line, "yo no naka no," means "the world." It is the subject of "clearing" in the second line, overlaying the sky with the state of the world.
The second line, "hareyuku sora ni," means "in the clearing sky," likening the brightening world to the sky clearing.
The third line, "furu shimo no," works with what precedes as a preface, leading from the frost's "settling" to "no place to settle." Frost falling from a clear sky is set down as something with nowhere to go.
The fourth line, "ukimi bakari zo," means "my wretched self alone." "Bakari" limits it to himself, unlike the world.
The last line, "okidokoro naki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive form "naki." "Oki," to settle, is an associated word for frost, showing the loneliness of having nowhere to be.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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