Yuki fukaku uzumitekeri na kimi ku ya to momiji no nishiki shikishi yamaji o

雪深く埋みてけりな君来やと
紅葉の錦敷きし山路を

Roma-ji: Yuki fukaku uzumitekeri na kimi ku ya to momiji no nishiki shikishi yamaji o
English Translation: Deep the snow has come
and buried it all away:
wondering if you'd come,
a brocade of autumn leaves
I spread along the mountain path.
Meaning: How deeply the snow has buried it, the mountain path I spread with a brocade of autumn leaves, wondering whether you would come.
Commentary: Winter Poems 531

Headnote: "Sent after the snow had fallen to someone who in autumn had promised to come to Mount Kōya but did not come"
The headnote tells us this was sent, after the snow had fallen, to someone who had promised in autumn to visit Mount Kōya but never came. The mountain path the poet spread with a brocade of autumn leaves, waiting and wondering whether his friend would come, is now buried deep in snow. The reproach to the friend who failed to come is conveyed gently through the change of the mountain path from autumn to winter.
By likening the leaf-strewn path to brocade and having the snow bury it, the poem shows the seasons passing while the autumn promise went unkept.

First line, “yuki fukaku”: deep in snow.
Second line, “uzumitekeri na”: tekeri is perfective and exclamatory, and na an exclamatory particle, how it has buried it; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, “kimi ku ya to”: ya is a question particle, wondering whether you would come.
Fourth line, “momiji no nishiki”: nishiki is brocade woven in many colors, likening the fallen leaves to it.
Fifth line, “shikishi yamaji o”: shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, the path I spread; it is the object of the second line, placed after it in inversion.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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