Sumu mizu o kokoro nashi to wa tare ka iu kōri zo fuyu no hajime o mo shiru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

澄む水を心なしとは誰か言ふ
氷ぞ冬の初めをも知る

Roma-ji: Sumu mizu o kokoro nashi to wa tare ka iu kōri zo fuyu no hajime o mo shiru
English Translation: The clear-running water,
who is it that dares to say
it has no heart?
For by its ice it knows
even the first of winter
Meaning: Who would say that clear water has no heart? By turning to ice, it knows even the very beginning of winter.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 392

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. Who would say that clear water has no heart, the poet asks, when by turning to ice it knows even the beginning of winter? It is a witty poem that finds a human heart in the water that begins to freeze as the season turns.
The author, "Major Counselor Takasue," is Fujiwara no Takasue, son of Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Ienari, who rose to Provisional Major Counselor. He is regarded as the founder of the Shijō house and 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, "sumu mizu o": "the clear water," water pure and transparent.
Second line, "kokoro nashi to wa": "that it has no heart," treating it as something without feeling. 456 of this book likewise grants a heart to a freezing pond with "kokoro arite mo."
Third line, "tare ka iu": the rhetorical "ka," "who would say so? no one could." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "kōri zo fuyu no": the emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "shiru" in the last line, stressing that the ice itself is the proof.
Fifth line, "hajime o mo shiru": "mo," "even," shows the fineness of the water's heart that knows even so subtle a moment as winter's first day.
Author: Fujiwara no Takasue
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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