Furu yuki ni nokiba no take mo uzumorete tomo koso nakere fuyu no yamazato - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

降る雪に軒端の竹も埋もれて
友こそなけれ冬の山里

Roma-ji: Furu yuki ni nokiba no take mo uzumorete tomo koso nakere fuyu no yamazato
English Translation: In the falling snow
even the bamboo by the eaves
is buried from sight:
now I have no friend at all
in the mountain village of winter
Meaning: In the falling snow even the bamboo by the eaves is buried, and I have no friend left in this winter mountain village.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 462

Headnote: "Composed when a poetry contest was held at the Seiryū Shrine in Daigo"
Composed when a poetry contest was held at the Seiryū Shrine in Daigo. In the falling snow, the poet says, even the bamboo by the eaves is buried, and there is no friend left in the winter mountain village. It sings of the loneliness of utter solitude in a mountain village no one visits, when even the bamboo by the eaves, the one companion, is buried under the snow.
The author, "Yomibito shirazu," indicates that the poet's name has not come down.
Poems on snow continue from 445 to 467. Taking bamboo as a friend comes from the story of Wang Huizhi of Jin China, who loved bamboo, called it "this gentleman," and said he could not do without it for a single day. The Seiryū Shrine in Daigo is the guardian shrine of Daigoji in the capital.

First line, "furu yuki ni": "because of the falling snow." 422 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "nokiba no take mo": "nokiba" is the edge of the eaves, and this is the bamboo planted beside it. "Mo" adds "even."
Third line, "uzumorete": "buried in the snow."
Fourth line, "tomo koso nakere": "tomo," friend, draws on the story of taking bamboo as a friend. The emphatic "koso" closes with "nakere" in the perfective form, and the poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "fuyu no yamazato": the poem ends on a noun. The loneliness of a mountain village with no visitors recurs in this book, as in 413.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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