Samazama no kusaba mo ima wa shimogarenu nobe yori fuyu ya tachite kitsu ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さまざまの草葉も今は霜枯れぬ
野辺より冬や立ちて来つらん

Roma-ji: Samazama no kusaba mo ima wa shimogarenu nobe yori fuyu ya tachite kitsu ran
English Translation: The leaves and grasses
of every kind have withered
now beneath the frost:
was it from the open fields
that winter set out and came?
Meaning: The leaves of every kind of grass have now withered in the frost. Did winter rise from the fields and make its way here?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 391

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the topic 'Early Winter' when he called for a hundred-poem sequence"
Composed on the topic of early winter for the Kyūan Hyakushu. The leaves of every kind of grass have now withered in the frost, the poet says, so did winter rise from the fields and come here? Seeing the grasses that bloomed in many colors in autumn all withered alike, he imagines winter setting out from the fields and making its way to him.
The author, "Ōimikado Udaijin," is Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, who rose to Minister of the Right. He was one of the authors of Retired Emperor Sutoku's Kyūan Hyakushu.
The five poems from 390 to 394 are poems on early winter taken from Retired Emperor Sutoku's Kyūan Hyakushu. The Kyūan Hyakushu is the hundred-poem sequence that Retired Emperor Sutoku commissioned from poets such as Fujiwara no Akisuke and Fujiwara no Shunzei, presented in the sixth year of Kyūan (1150).

First line, "samazama no": "of many kinds," recalling the grasses that bloomed in profusion on the autumn moor.
Second line, "kusaba mo ima wa": "ima wa," "now," compared with the height of autumn, marking the passage of time.
Third line, "shimogarenu": the perfective "nu," "have withered in the frost." The poem pauses here. 428 and 449 of this book also sing of withering by frost with "shimogare no."
Fourth line, "nobe yori fuyu ya": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line, seeing the withered moor as winter's point of departure.
Fifth line, "tachite kitsu ran": "tatsu" is for a season to begin, and winter is treated as a traveler who "set out and came." "Ran" is the present conjecture.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinyoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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