冴え渡る夜半の気色に深山辺の
雪の深さをそらに知るかな
雪の深さをそらに知るかな
- Roma-ji
-
Saewataru yowa no keshiki ni miyamabe no yuki no fukasa o sora ni shiru kana
- English Translation
-
From the look of night
so chill in every quarter,
I know without seeing,
from the sky, how deep the snow
lies in the far mountains
- Meaning
- From the bitter chill that fills the midnight air, I know without seeing, from the sky itself, how deep the snow lies in the far mountains.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 447
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on snow among the poems of a hundred-poem sequence"
A poem on snow from the Kyūan Hyakushu. From the bitter chill that fills the midnight air, the poet says, he knows without seeing, from the sky, how deep the snow lies in the far mountains. From nothing but the night's cold and the look of the sky, he gauges the depth of snow in mountains beyond his sight.
The author, "Fujiwara no Suemichi Ason," was the son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Munemichi. Known as a master of the biwa and the koto, he was one of the authors of Sutoku's hundred-poem sequence, known as the Kyūan Hyakushu.
The three poems from 446 to 448 are poems on snow 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, "saewataru": "chilling all around."
Second line, "yowa no keshiki ni": "keshiki" is the look or feel of things, the cold of the midnight air.
Third line, "miyamabe no": "of the deep mountains."
Fourth line, "yuki no fukasa o": "the depth of the snow" lying in the mountains.
Fifth line, "sora ni shiru kana": "sora" is a pivot word meaning both the sky and knowing by guess without seeing. Like "kanete zo shiruki" in the preceding poem, 446, it knows the snow without seeing it.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Suemichi
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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