Kogarashi ni mine no konoha ya taguuran murago ni miyuru taki no shiraito

木枯らしに峰の木の葉やたぐふらん
村濃に見ゆる滝の白糸

Roma-ji: Kogarashi ni mine no konoha ya taguuran murago ni miyuru taki no shiraito
English Translation: With the withering wind
have the leaves upon the peak
come falling along?
dappled now in light and dark,
the white threads of the waterfall.
Meaning: Have the leaves of the peak come tumbling down together with the withering wind? The white threads of the waterfall look dappled, dyed dark in some places and pale in others.
Commentary: Winter Poems 500

Headnote: "Falling leaves over a waterfall"
The topic is leaves falling over a waterfall. The waterfall, pouring down like white threads, looks in places as if dyed in dappled shades, and the poet wonders whether the leaves of the peak are falling with it, carried by the withering wind. The waterfall is likened to white thread, and the leaves mixed into it to murago dyeing.
Poem 555 in this book also ends with the white threads of the waterfall, there a waterfall stilled by ice. The waterfall flowing dyed with fallen leaves answers the waterfall frozen motionless.

First line, “kogarashi ni”: kogarashi is the cold, strong wind that blows from late autumn into early winter.
Second line, “mine no konoha ya”: ya is a question particle that binds with ran in the third line.
Third line, “taguuran”: tagu is to go along together; ran is the attributive of present conjecture, and the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “murago ni miyuru”: murago is dyeing in one color with darker and lighter patches, likening the leaf-strewn waterfall to dyed cloth.
Fifth line, “taki no shiraito”: the poem ends on a noun, the waterfall falling like white threads.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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