Ikada orosu Kiyotakigawa ni sumu tsuki wa sao ni sawaranu kōri narikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

筏下ろす清滝川に澄む月は
棹にさはらぬ氷なりけり

Roma-ji: Ikada orosu Kiyotakigawa ni sumu tsuki wa sao ni sawaranu kōri narikeri
English Translation: The moon shining clear
on the Kiyotaki River
where the rafts float down
is a sheet of ice indeed
that the pole can never touch
Meaning: The moon shining clear on the Kiyotaki River, where rafts are floated downstream, turns out to be ice that the raftsman's pole never strikes.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 991

Headnote: "Composed when I wrote ten poems on the moon"
This poem was composed when he wrote ten poems on the moon. The moon shining clear on the Kiyotaki River where rafts float down is ice that the pole never touches, he says. Seeing the moon reflected cold and white on the river as ice, he notices that the raft pole thrusting into it meets no hindrance at all, adding wit while making the most of the comparison.
The author, "Priest Shun'e," was a son of Minamoto no Toshiyori. He became a monk of Tōdaiji and gathered poets at his lodging in Shirakawa in the capital, which he named the Karin'en, the Garden of Poetic Forest. He was the teacher of Kamo no Chōmei, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Where the preceding poem, 990, sings of the moon by the sea, this one sings of the moon on a mountain river. And where 989 of this book sees moonlight as snow, this poem sees the moon on the water as ice, so that comparisons of the moon to things of winter stand together.

First line, "ikada orosu": "floating rafts of timber down the river," a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Second line, "Kiyotakigawa ni": the Kiyotaki River north of Saga in the capital, where rafts were floated.
Third line, "sumu tsuki wa": "the moon reflected clear on the river." It shares the clearness of the moon with "sumeru keshiki wa" in the second line of the next poem, 992.
Fourth line, "sao ni sawaranu": "sawaru" means to touch or hinder, "not touched by the raft pole."
Fifth line, "kōri narikeri": "keri" expresses exclamation at a realization, "it is ice." It pairs with the comparison to snow in "yuki furinikeri," the fifth line of 989 of this book.
Author: Shun'e
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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