Kōri shiku numa no ashihara kaze saete tsuki mo hikari zo sabishikarikeru

氷敷く沼の葦原風冴えて
月も光ぞ寂しかりける

Roma-ji: Kōri shiku numa no ashihara kaze saete tsuki mo hikari zo sabishikarikeru
English Translation: Ice spread over all
across the reed beds of the marsh
the wind blows freezing,
and the moon too in its light
seems so lonely and forlorn.
Meaning: Over the reed beds of the marsh, spread with ice, the wind blows freezing cold, and even the moon seems lonely in its light.
Commentary: Winter Poems 520

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The moon shining on cold grasses"
This is the second poem on the topic of the moon shining on cold grasses. A freezing wind sweeps over the reed beds of a marsh spread with ice, and even the moon that lights them seems lonely in its light. The chill of the winter marsh is caught reaching into the moonlight itself.
Where the preceding poem found the moon over the withered moor deeply moving, aware narikeri, this one finds the moon over the withered reed beds lonely, sabishikarikeru, dividing the moon of the same topic between aware and loneliness.

First line, “kōri shiku”: shiku is to spread across, the ice covering the whole marsh.
Second line, “numa no ashihara”: ashihara is a field thick with reeds, answering the cold grasses of the topic.
Third line, “kaze saete”: sayu is to be chill, the wind blowing cold.
Fourth line, “tsuki mo hikari zo”: mo means even the moon as well as the scene; zo is an emphatic particle that binds with the attributive keru in the last line.
Fifth line, “sabishikarikeru”: it seems lonely, closing in the attributive keru required by zo.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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