Oku shimo ni iro mo kawaranu sakakiba no ka o ya wa hito no tomete kitsuran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

置く霜に色も変はらぬ榊葉の
香をやは人のとめて来つらん

Roma-ji: Oku shimo ni iro mo kawaranu sakakiba no ka o ya wa hito no tomete kitsuran
English Translation: Though the frost lies down,
not changing in its color,
the sakaki leaves—
is it their fragrance that
people sought, and so have come?
Meaning: Is it the fragrance of the sakaki leaves, whose color does not change even under the settling frost, that people have sought out in coming here?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1869

Headnote: "Composed on kagura."
This is the second poem in the sequence on rites and festivals. It asks whether people have come seeking the fragrance of sakaki leaves, whose color does not change even under frost. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of kagura, sacred music and dance. Those who gather for kagura are pictured as visitors drawn by the scent of the evergreen sakaki.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū. He is known as the writer of its kana preface.
It draws on the kagura song "Sakakiba no / ka o kaguwashimi / tomekureba / yasoujibito zo / matoi serikeru" ("Drawn by the sweet scent of sakaki leaves, I sought it out—and found the many clans gathered in a circle"). The kagura song's picture of many people gathering in search of the sakaki's scent is turned here into a question.

The first line, "oku shimo ni," means "even under the settling frost," giving the season of kagura performed on winter nights.
The second line, "iro mo kawaranu," means "not changing color even in frost." The unchanging evergreen sakaki is overlaid with the eternity of the gods.
The third line, "sakakiba no," names the leaves of the sakaki used in sacred rites, also one of the torimono, the objects dancers hold in kagura.
In the fourth line, "ka o ya wa hito no," "ya wa" is an interrogative particle taken up in the last line. It answers "ka o kaguwashimi" in the kagura song.
The last line, "tomete kitsuran," means "have they come seeking it?" The perfective "tsu" takes the conjectural "ran," whose attributive closes "ya wa." The next poem is by the same author, so two poems by Tsurayuki stand together.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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