Mubatama no waga kurokami ni toshi kurete kagami no kage ni fureru shirayuki - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

むばたまの我が黒髪に年暮れて
鏡の影に降れる白雪

Roma-ji: Mubatama no waga kurokami ni toshi kurete kagami no kage ni fureru shirayuki
English Translation: On my hair, once black
as the berries of the night,
the year draws to its close,
and in the mirror I see
white snow that has fallen there.
Meaning: On my hair, once black as the jet-black berry, the year has drawn to its close, and in the mirror's reflection I see that white snow has fallen.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1158

Headnote: "Around the end of the twelfth month, lamenting that he had grown old"
The poet says that the year has come to its end upon his black hair, and in his reflection in the mirror white snow has fallen there. The headnote shows it was composed around the end of the twelfth month, lamenting that he had grown old. Contrasting the colors of black hair and white snow, it likens the white hair seen in the mirror at the year's end to fallen snow, expressing the grief of old age.
This is the closing poem of the book. Where the opening poem, 1082, began by singing of the Tanabata festival, this closing poem ends with a lament for age at the end of the year, so the book begins with the once-a-year Tanabata and closes with the year's end. It also answers the snow falling on the topknot cord in 1153 of this book, in singing of snow falling on the hair.
The author, written as "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki, the leading compiler of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "mubatama no," is a pillow word leading to "kuro," black.
Second line, "waga kurokami ni," means "on my black hair," pairing as black against white with "shirayuki," white snow, in the final line.
Third line, "toshi kurete," means "the year draws to its close," layering the year's end with his own growing old.
Fourth line, "kagami no kage ni," means "in my reflection in the mirror."
Final line, "fureru shirayuki," means "the white snow that has fallen," likening white hair to snow, with "ru" the attributive form of the continuative "ri," the poem closing on a noun. It answers the second line of 1153 in this book, "furisou yuki no," in singing of snow falling on the hair.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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