Tsurara ite migakeru kage no miyuru kana makoto ni ima ya Tamagawa no mizu - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

つららゐて磨ける影の見ゆるかな
まことに今や玉川の水

Roma-ji: Tsurara ite migakeru kage no miyuru kana makoto ni ima ya Tamagawa no mizu
English Translation: Now that ice has formed,
how it gleams as if polished
shining to the eye:
truly, now, is this the water
of the River of Jewels?
Meaning: Now that ice has formed, it shines as if polished; is this not, truly, now the water of the Jewel River, true to its name?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 442

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on ice when he called for a hundred-poem sequence"
Composed by Retired Emperor Sutoku himself on the topic of ice when he called for a hundred-poem sequence, the Kyūan Hyakushu. Now that ice has formed, he says, it shines as if polished, so that now, truly, this must be the water of the Jewel River, true to its name. Likening the gleam of the frozen river to a polished jewel, he delights that it has taken on a form worthy of the name Tamagawa.
The author, "Sutokuin Gyosei," is Emperor Sutoku, the seventy-fifth emperor and son of Emperor Toba, who was exiled to Sanuki after his defeat in the Hōgen Disturbance. He conceived the Kyūan Hyakushu and had Fujiwara no Akisuke compile the Shika Wakashū. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem and the next, 443, are poems on ice from the Kyūan Hyakushu, and the two form a pair, each placing the poetic place name "Tamagawa" in its last line. 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, "tsurara ite": "tsurara" is ice on the water's surface, and "iru" is for ice to form, the same words as "tsurara inikeri" in 434 of this book.
Second line, "migakeru kage no": "migakeru" is "polished," and "kage" is light or gleam, likening the shine of the ice to a polished jewel.
Third line, "miyuru kana": the exclamatory "kana," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "makoto ni ima ya": the interrogative "ya," "truly now," confirming that the river has become worthy of the place name in the last line.
Fifth line, "Tamagawa no mizu": the poem ends on a noun. "Tamagawa" is a poetic place found in many provinces, and he delights that the gleam of the ice, like a polished jewel, suits the "tama," jewel, of its name. The next poem, 443, ends with "Tamagawa no sato."
Author: Retired Emperor Sutoku
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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