冬の池の水に流るるあし鴨の
うき寝ながらにいく夜経ぬらん
うき寝ながらにいく夜経ぬらん
- Roma-ji
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Fuyu no ike no mizu ni nagaruru ashigamo no ukine nagara ni iku yo henuran
- English Translation
-
On the winter pond,
drifting with the water,
the ducks among the reeds—
in their floating, sorrowful sleep
how many nights have passed
- Meaning
- Like the reed ducks drifting on the water of the winter pond, how many nights have I passed in a floating, sorrowful sleep?
- Commentary
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Book Eight Winter Poems 490
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet wonders how many nights have passed in a floating sleep, like the reed ducks drifting on the water of a winter pond. In the ducks that sleep afloat, the poem overlays an unsettled and sorrowful night of sleeping alone.
Like 460 in this book, it opens with "fuyu no ike no" and sings of ducks. Where 460 entrusted its brooding to the frost, this poem entrusts the pain of sleeping alone to a floating sleep.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Fuyu no ike no," has an extra syllable and is the same line that opens 460 in this book.
The second line, "mizu ni nagaruru," means "drifting on the water."
The third line, "ashigamo no," means "of the ducks among the reeds," and the first three lines form a preface leading to "ukine" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "uki" is a pivot word meaning both "floating" on water and "sorrowful."
In the last line, "ran" is an auxiliary of present conjecture: "how many nights have passed?"
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Oshinabete yuki no furereba waga yado no sugi o tazunete tou hito mo nashi
- Next Poem
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Yama chikami mezurashige naku furu yuki no shiroku ya naran toshi tsumorinaba