Sasa no ha ni furitsumu yuki no ure o omomi moto kutachiyuku waga sakari wa mo - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ささの葉に降り積む雪のうれを重み
本くたちゆく我が盛りはも

Roma-ji: Sasa no ha ni furitsumu yuki no ure o omomi moto kutachiyuku waga sakari wa mo
English Translation: On bamboo-grass leaves
the snow keeps piling up;
its tips grow heavy
and bend down from the root:
so wanes the prime of my life.
Meaning: As bamboo grass bends from its roots under snow piled heavy on its tips, so the prime of my life is declining.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 891

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The bamboo grass, its tips weighed down by piled snow, bends from the root, and the poet sees in it his own prime declining. The whiteness of the snow suggests white hair, and the poem quietly laments the coming of age. The author is unknown.

First line "sasa no ha ni" presents the slender, supple leaves of bamboo grass receiving the snow.
Second line "furitsumu yuki no" suggests the piling up of years, the snow's whiteness evoking white hair.
Third line "ure o omomi" uses the pattern noun, o, adjective stem, mi: "because the tips are heavy." The first three lines form a preface leading to the fourth.
Fourth line "moto kutachiyuku": kutatsu means to lean or decline, overlaying bamboo bending from the root and a declining prime.
Fifth line "waga sakari wa mo" closes with the exclamatory final particle wa mo.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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