Kimi kouru namida no kōru fuyu no yo wa kokoro toketaru i ya wa neraruru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君恋ふる涙の凍る冬の夜は
心とけたる寝やは寝らるる

Roma-ji: Kimi kouru namida no kōru fuyu no yo wa kokoro toketaru i ya wa neraruru
English Translation: On winter nights
when the very tears I shed
for you turn to ice,
could I ever sleep a sleep
with my heart thawed into ease?
Meaning: On winter nights when even the tears I shed in longing for you freeze, how could I sleep a sleep of easy, thawed heart?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 727

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that on winter nights when even the tears shed in longing freeze, the poet cannot sleep with an easy heart. Echoing in "toke" both ice "thawing" and a heart "opening" to ease, it lays over cold enough to freeze tears a heart so tense with longing that it finds no rest. Poems that entrust love to winter imagery follow, with the white snow of the next poem, 728, and the morning ice of 729.

First line, "kimi kouru," means "longing for you."
Second line, "namida no kōru," means "when the tears I shed freeze."
Third line, "fuyu no yo wa," means "on winter nights."
Fourth line, "kokoro toketaru," means "with a heart at ease," with "toke" echoing ice "thawing" against the freezing tears of the second line. It shares with the second line of 729 in this book, "tokuru ma mo naki," the device of overlaying thawing ice and an opening heart.
Final line, "i ya wa neraruru," means "could I sleep a sleep? no," with "ya wa" rhetorical. The binding particle "ya" is resolved by "raruru," the attributive form of the potential auxiliary "raru."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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