Kakikurashi furu shirayuki no shitagie ni kiete mono omou koro ni mo aru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かきくらし降る白雪の下消えに
消えて物思ふころにもあるかな

Roma-ji: Kakikurashi furu shirayuki no shitagie ni kiete mono omou koro ni mo aru kana
English Translation: Like the falling snow
that darkens all the sky and
melts away beneath,
I waste away, lost in thought,
through all these days of longing.
Meaning: Like the white snow that darkens the sky as it falls and melts away from beneath, I am wasting away inside, lost in longing, these days.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 566

Headnote: "A poem from the poetry contest held at the residence of the Empress in the Kanpyō era"
The poet says that, just as white snow that darkens the sky as it falls melts unseen from below, he too is wasting away within, tormented by love. The upper verse serves as a preface, and the snow melting from beneath, invisible from above, is overlaid with the pain of a love that cannot be shown. It was composed for the Kanpyō-era Empress's poetry contest and is placed within the run of poems from that contest.
Mibu no Tadamine was a poet of the early Heian period and the father of Mibu no Tadami. Although a low-ranking official such as a clerk of the Right Gate Guards, he was chosen as one of the compilers of the Kokinshū. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "kakikurashi": kakikurasu means to darken the whole sky, depicting heavy snowfall. It also suggests a heart shut in darkness.
Second line, "furu shirayuki no": the falling, piling snow, leading into "shitagie" in the third line.
Third line, "shitagie ni": shitagie is the melting of piled snow from below. The first three lines form a preface leading to "kiete" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "kiete mono omou": to be tormented almost to vanishing. Mono omou refers to brooding over love. The line has eight syllables, one more than the norm. As with "kiekaerite" in the previous poem, 564, the device of drawing a vanishing heart from a vanishing image continues.
Fifth line, "koro ni mo aru kana": kana is an exclamatory particle, closing with a deep sigh over days that go on in this way.
Author: Mibu no Tadamine
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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