Shimo saete migiwa fukeyuku urakaze o omoishirige ni naku chidori kana

霜冴えて汀更けゆく浦風を
思ひ知りげに鳴く千鳥かな

Roma-ji: Shimo saete migiwa fukeyuku urakaze o omoishirige ni naku chidori kana
English Translation: The frost lies frozen,
by the water night grows late
and the inlet wind,
as though they felt its bitterness,
how the plovers cry and cry!
Meaning: With the frost frozen hard and the night growing late at the water's edge, the plovers cry as though they knew too well the bitterness of the wind off the inlet.
Commentary: Winter Poems 550

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Plovers"
This is the third of five poems on plovers. With frost frozen hard and the night deepening at the water's edge, the wind off the inlet grows ever colder, and the plovers cry as though they knew its bitterness all too well. In the plovers' voices the poet hears the cold and desolation of the shore on a winter night.
Poem 510 in this book also pairs shimo saete and urakaze to tell of a winter dawn by the shore, so the same words serve to divide the cold between late night and dawn.

First line, “shimo saete”: the frost frozen cold.
Second line, “migiwa fukeyuku”: fukeyuku is the night growing late, at the water's edge.
Third line, “urakaze o”: urakaze is the wind blowing over an inlet or shore.
Fourth line, “omoishirige ni”: omoishiru is to know through one's own experience, and ge ni means with that air.
Fifth line, “naku chidori kana”: the plovers crying, with exclamatory kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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