Shimogarete moroku kudakuru ogi no ha o araku wakunaru kaze no oto kana

霜枯れてもろく砕くる荻の葉を
荒く分くなる風の音かな

Roma-ji: Shimogarete moroku kudakuru ogi no ha o araku wakunaru kaze no oto kana
English Translation: Withered by the frost,
so brittle, crumbling at a touch,
the leaves of the reeds,
roughly it parts them as it goes,
hear the sound of the passing wind!
Meaning: Through the leaves of the reeds, withered by the frost and crumbling at a touch, I hear the wind roughly forcing its way.
Commentary: Winter Poems 509

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Grasses on a withered moor"
This is the third poem on the topic of grasses on a withered moor. The poet hears the wind roughly forcing its way through the leaves of the ogi reeds, withered by frost and so brittle that they crumble at a touch. The reeds, which rustled in the wind in autumn, now make the sound of withered leaves breaking.
Where the first two poems of the sequence treated the withered moor as something seen, this one treats its grasses through the sound of the wind, so the three poems divide the topic between them.

First line, “shimogarete”: withered by the frost.
Second line, “moroku kudakuru”: crumbling brittle, showing the dryness of the withered leaves.
Third line, “ogi no ha o”: ogi is a reed like pampas grass growing by the water, sung of for rustling in the wind.
Fourth line, “araku wakunaru”: naru is the attributive of the auxiliary of inference from sound, it seems to be roughly parting them.
Fifth line, “kaze no oto kana”: the sound of the wind, with exclamatory kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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