Matsukage no iwai no mizu o musubiagete natsu naki toshi to omoikeru kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

松影の岩井の水をむすびあげて
夏なき年と思ひけるかな

Roma-ji: Matsukage no iwai no mizu o musubiagete natsu naki toshi to omoikeru kana
English Translation: In the shade of pines,
water from the rocky spring
I scoop in my hands,
and I thought that this must be
a year that has no summer.
Meaning: Scooping up in my hands water from the rocky spring in the shade of the pines, I thought this must be a year without summer.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 131

Headnote: "Cooling off by the spring at the Kawara Palace"
Scooping up with both hands the water welling from the rocks in the shade of the pines, the poet feels its chill and thinks this must be a year with no summer. The coolness of the spring is expressed as the surprise of finding summer itself gone. According to the headnote, it was composed while cooling off beside the spring at the Kawara Palace.
The author, written as Egyō Hōshi, was a monk and poet of the mid-Heian period. He associated with the poets who gathered around the monk Anpō, who lived at the Kawara Palace, and he is counted among the Later Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "matsukage no," means "in the shade of the pines." Following the shade of the summer mountains in the preceding poems, poems on shade and coolness continue.
Second line, "iwai no mizu o," means "the water of the spring welling from the rocks," referring to the spring at the Kawara Palace.
Third line, "musubiagete," means "scooping it up with both hands," and has an extra syllable.
Fourth line, "natsu naki toshi to," means "a year without summer." Whereas this book began with poems on summer's arrival, this poem sings of a coolness that makes summer seem not to exist, turning the themes of heat and coolness as the book nears its end.
Final line, "omoikeru kana," means "so I thought," with the exclamatory particle "kana."
Author: Egyō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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