Hisagi ouru ono no asaji ni oku shimo no shiroki o mireba yo ya fukenu ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

久木生ふる小野の浅茅に置く霜の
白きを見れば夜や更けぬらん

Roma-ji: Hisagi ouru ono no asaji ni oku shimo no shiroki o mireba yo ya fukenu ran
English Translation: Where the hisagi grow,
upon the sparse reeds of the moor
the frost has settled:
when I see its whiteness, I wonder,
has the night grown deep already?
Meaning: Seeing how white the frost lies on the sparse reeds of the moor where the hisagi trees grow, I wonder if the night has already grown late.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 399

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
A poem from the Horikawa Hyakushu. Seeing how white the frost lies on the sparse reeds of the moor where the hisagi grow, the poet says, he wonders if the night has already grown late. Learning the lateness of the hour from the whiteness of the frost, he depicts a winter night growing ever colder.
The author, "Fujiwara no Mototoshi," was the son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Toshiie. A leading figure of the poetry world of the cloistered-rule period alongside Minamoto no Toshiyori, he was the teacher of Fujiwara no Shunzei. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Its foundation poem is "When I see how white the frost lies on the bridge the magpies span, I know the night has grown late," attributed to Ōtomo no Yakamochi and included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, from which this poem borrows nearly everything from the third line on. "Hisagi ouru" draws on a phrase from a poem by Yamabe no Akahito in the Man'yōshū.

First line, "hisagi ouru": "hisagi" is a deciduous tree, thought to be the akamegashiwa or the kisasage, a word found in a poem by Yamabe no Akahito in the Man'yōshū.
Second line, "ono no asaji ni": "ono" is a moor, and "asaji" are short, sparse cogon reeds.
Third line, "oku shimo no": "the frost settled on the reeds," the same third line as Yakamochi's foundation poem. From the "shimo ya oku ran" of the preceding poem, 398, it moves here to frost that can be seen.
Fourth line, "shiroki o mireba": "ba" gives a fixed condition, "when I see its whiteness."
Fifth line, "yo ya fukenu ran": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran," turning the certainty of the foundation poem's "yo zo fukenikeru" into a conjecturing question.
Author: Fujiwara no Mototoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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