夜ならば月とぞ見まし我が宿の
庭白妙に降れる白雪
庭白妙に降れる白雪
- Roma-ji
-
Yoru naraba tsuki to zo mimashi waga yado no niwa shirotae ni fureru shirayuki
- English Translation
-
Were it night, I'd think
it was the light of the moon—
here within my garden,
all of it turned pure white,
the white snow that has fallen.
- Meaning
- Were it night, I would have taken it for moonlight—the white snow that has fallen and turned my garden pure white.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 246
Headnote: "For a folding screen of the Kamo High Priestess"
The poet says that, were it night, he would have mistaken the snow that has turned his garden white for moonlight. The figure likening the whiteness of snow to moonlight is set out as a supposition against the daytime scene, praising the brightness of the snow-covered garden. According to the headnote, it was written for a folding screen of the Kamo High Priestess.
The author, written as Tsurayuki, is Ki no Tsurayuki. The leading compiler of the Kokinshū, he wrote its Kana Preface and the Tosa Diary, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "yoru naraba," means "if it were night."
Second line, "tsuki to zo mimashi," means "I would have seen it as the moon," with "mashi" an auxiliary expressing a counterfactual supposition. It resolves "zo" in the attributive "mashi," and the poem pauses here.
Third line, "waga yado no," means "of my house." The next poem, 247, also begins with "waga yado no."
Fourth line, "niwa shirotae ni," means "turning the garden pure white."
Final line, "fureru shirayuki," names the white snow that has fallen, ending on a noun that gives the subject by inversion. 254 in this book likewise ends with "fureru shirayuki."
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ashihiki no yamai ni fureru shirayuki wa sureru koromo no kokochi koso sure
- Next Poem
-
Waga yado no yuki ni tsukete zo furusato no yoshino no yama wa omoiyararuru