Oku shimo o haraikanete ya shiorefusu katsumi ga shita ni oshi no naku ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

置く霜を払ひかねてやしをれ伏す
かつみが下に鴛鴦の鳴くらん

Roma-ji: Oku shimo o haraikanete ya shiorefusu katsumi ga shita ni oshi no naku ran
English Translation: Unable to brush
the settling frost away,
they droop and bend:
is it there beneath the rushes
the mandarin ducks are crying?
Meaning: Beneath the wild rice bent and drooping, unable to shake off the frost, are the mandarin ducks crying, unable to brush it off either?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 436

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on waterfowl"
Composed as a poem on waterfowl. Beneath the wild rice drooping and bent, unable to shake off the frost, the poet asks, are the mandarin ducks crying, unable to brush it off either? Overlaying the plants bowed under the weight of frost with the ducks crying in the cold beneath them, he depicts the harshness of the frosty winter waterside.
The author, "Kamo no Shigeyasu," was a head priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine. A poet who frequented the Karin'en circle, he compiled the private anthology Tsukimōde Wakashū.
The nine poems from 429 to 437 are poems on waterfowl. Mandarin ducks, wild ducks and other waterfowl were counted among the sights of the winter waterside. The preceding poem, 435, and this one are poems on waterfowl placed under the same headnote.

First line, "oku shimo o": "the frost that has settled."
Second line, "haraikanete ya": "haraikanu" is to be unable to brush off, and the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line. Where 429 of this book sings of ducks brushing frost from each other, this poem sings of ducks unable to, in contrast.
Third line, "shiorefusu": "drooping and bowed," the plants bent by the weight of frost. "Haraikanete" applies to both the plants and the ducks.
Fourth line, "katsumi ga shita ni": "katsumi" is a waterside plant thought to be a kind of wild rice.
Fifth line, "oshi no naku ran": the present conjecture "ran," "are they crying beneath it?"
Author: Kamo no Shigeyasu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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