Fuyu kureba yukute ni hito wa kumanedomo kōri zo musubu yama no i no mizu - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

冬来れば行く手に人は汲まねども
氷ぞむすぶ山の井の水

Roma-ji: Fuyu kureba yukute ni hito wa kumanedomo kōri zo musubu yama no i no mizu
English Translation: When winter comes,
no traveler along the way
cups it in his hands,
yet ice binds, as if to scoop,
the water of the mountain spring
Meaning: When winter comes, no traveler stops to scoop it up, yet the ice binds the water of the mountain spring as if to cup it.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 440

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on ice"
Composed as a poem on ice. When winter comes, the poet says, no traveler stops to scoop up the water of the mountain spring, yet the ice "musubu" it in their place. By saying that in winter the ice "binds" the spring water that travelers cupped in their hands to drink in summer, he catches the change of seasons with wit.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nariie Ason," was the son of this anthology's compiler, Fujiwara no Shunzei, and an elder brother of Fujiwara no Teika.
The three poems from 439 to 441 are poems on ice placed under the same headnote.
Since Ki no Tsurayuki's poem in the Kokin Wakashū, "Parting from you unsatisfied, like a mountain spring clouded by drops from the hands that scoop it," "musubu," to cup water from a mountain spring in one's hands, has often been sung of, and this poem draws on that tradition.

First line, "fuyu kureba": "when winter comes." 400 of this book likewise opens from winter's arrival with "fuyu kite wa."
Second line, "yukute ni hito wa": "yukute" is the way ahead, along the road.
Third line, "kumanedomo": "ne," the perfective form of the negative "zu," "though no one draws it."
Fourth line, "kōri zo musubu": "musubu" is a pivot word meaning both for ice to form and to scoop water in one's hands. The emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "musubu," the same word as "musubu kōri" in 438, two poems earlier.
Fifth line, "yama no i no mizu": the poem ends on a noun. A "yama no i" is a shallow pool of spring water in the mountains.
Author: Fujiwara no Nariie
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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