Kagiri naku toku to wa suredo ashihiki no yamai no mizu wa nao zo kōreru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

限りなくとくとはすれどあしひきの
山ゐの水は猶ぞ凍れる

Roma-ji: Kagiri naku toku to wa suredo ashihiki no yamai no mizu wa nao zo kōreru
English Translation: Endlessly I strive,
hastening to melt it down,
yet in the mountains
the water of the indigo spring
still remains frozen hard.
Meaning: I am doing all I can to hurry and thaw it, but the water of the mountain spring, where the wild indigo grows, is still frozen.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1147

Headnote: "When someone setting out as an envoy to the festival sent asking her to print his patterned trousers"
The poet says that though she is doing all she can to hurry and thaw it, the water of the mountain spring is still frozen and the printed dyeing cannot be done. The headnote shows it was composed in answer to someone setting out as an envoy to the festival who had asked her to print his patterned trousers. Joining in "toku" the senses "quickly" and "to thaw," and in "yamai" the "mountain spring" and the "wild indigo" used in printed dyeing, she excuses the delay by pointing to the season when water freezes.
In the main text the author is recorded at the end of the headnote as "Sakon, a female chamberlain of the Crown Prince's household," a woman called Sakon who served the Crown Prince as a female chamberlain. Little is known of her life.

First line, "kagiri naku," means "beyond all measure."
Second line, "toku to wa suredo," turns on the pivot word "toku," joining "toku," quickly, and "toku," to thaw the ice, so that it means "though I try to hurry and thaw it."
Third line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word leading to "yama," mountain. It is the same word as the first line of 1149 in this book, "ashihiki no," and both poems go on to "ashihiki no yamai."
Fourth line, "yamai no mizu wa," turns on the pivot word "yamai," joining "yama no i," the mountain spring, and "yamaai," the wild indigo used in printed dyeing. It shares the same word with the second line of 1149 in this book, "yamai ni sureru."
Final line, "nao zo kōreru," means "is still frozen," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "ru," the attributive form of the continuative "ri." It pairs with the "thaw" of the second line, as thawing against freezing.
Author: Sakon
Source: Shui Wakashu
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