Kinō koso aki wa kureshika itsu no ma ni iwama no mizu no usugōru ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

昨日こそ秋は暮れしかいつの間に
岩間の水の薄氷るらん

Roma-ji: Kinō koso aki wa kureshika itsu no ma ni iwama no mizu no usugōru ran
English Translation: Only yesterday
autumn came to its close, and yet
when did it happen
that the water among the rocks
has frozen in a thin skin?
Meaning: It was only yesterday that autumn came to an end, so when did the water among the rocks freeze over with a thin skin of ice?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 387

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Early Winter' when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the topic of early winter for a hundred-poem sequence presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa. It was only yesterday that autumn ended, the poet says, so when did the water among the rocks freeze thinly over? Surprised that water is already beginning to freeze when autumn has only just ended by the calendar, he feels how quickly the seasons turn. The poem opens the book of winter poems.
The author, "Major Counselor Kinzane," is Fujiwara no Kinzane, son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Sanesue, who rose to Major Counselor. He was the father of Taikenmon'in Shōshi, consort of Emperor Toba, and one of the authors of the Horikawa Hyakushu.
This poem and the two that follow, through 389, are poems on early winter from the Horikawa Hyakushu. In the Horikawa Hyakushu, poets such as Minamoto no Toshiyori and Fujiwara no Kinzane each composed a hundred poems on shared topics in Horikawa's reign, and it became the model for later hundred-poem sequences.
The final poem of Book Five, 386, closed the autumn poems with the last night of autumn, "koyoi made." This poem looks back from the next day, "autumn ended only yesterday," and raises the curtain on the winter poems. The final poem of this book, 475, sings of the last day of the year, "toshi no kyō wa kurenan." The "yesterday" at the opening and the "today" at the close answer each other, both gazing at the ending of a season or a year.

First line, "kinō koso": the emphatic "koso" closes with "shika" in the perfective form in the second line, stressing how recent it was, "only yesterday." Words for a day stand at the beginning and end of the book, answered by "kyō wa" in its final poem, 475.
Second line, "aki wa kureshika": "shika" is the perfective form of the past "ki," closing the "koso" of the first line, "autumn did end." The poem pauses here, taking up "koyoi made" in the final poem of Book Five, 386.
Third line, "itsu no ma ni": "when did it happen," expressing surprise at an unexpected change. 395 of this book opens with the same "itsu no ma ni" and sings of the water in a bamboo pipe freezing.
Fourth line, "iwama no mizu no": "iwama" is the gap between rocks, and the water is the water flowing there.
Fifth line, "usugōru ran": "usugōru" is to freeze thinly, and the present conjecture "ran" wonders when the thin ice before his eyes was formed.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinzane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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