Makomo karu horie ni ukite nuru kamo no koyoi no shimo ni ika ni waburan - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

まこも刈る堀江に浮きてぬる鴨の
今宵の霜にいかにわぶらん

Roma-ji: Makomo karu horie ni ukite nuru kamo no koyoi no shimo ni ika ni waburan
English Translation: Where wild rice is cut,
afloat upon the canal,
the sleeping ducks—
in the frost of this night
how they must be suffering
Meaning: The ducks that sleep afloat on the canal where the wild rice is cut—how they must suffer in tonight's frost.
Commentary: Book Eight Winter Poems 483

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet wonders how the ducks sleeping afloat on the canal where the wild rice is cut must suffer in tonight's frost. On a cold, frosty night, the poem feels for the ducks that sleep floating on the water.
Like 460 and 490 in this book, it sings of ducks by winter waters. It also shares with the frost on the mandarin ducks' wings in 478 a concern for frost upon water birds.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Makomo karu," means "where wild rice is cut," used almost like a pillow word for "horie," canal.
The second line, "horie ni ukite," means "floating on the dug canal."
The third line, "nuru kamo no," means "the ducks that sleep."
The fourth line, "koyoi no shimo ni," means "in tonight's frost."
In the last line, "ran" is an auxiliary of present conjecture: "how they must be suffering."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Aratama no toshi o watarite aru ga ue ni furitsumu yuki no taenu Shirayama
Next Poem: Shirakumo no oriiru yama to mietsuru wa furitsumu yuki no kienu narikeri