岩間ゆく木の葉分け来し山水を
つゆ漏らさぬは氷なりけり
つゆ漏らさぬは氷なりけり
- Roma-ji
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Iwama yuku konoha wakekoshi yamamizu o tsuyu morasanu wa kōri narikeri
- English Translation
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Between the rocks it ran,
threading through the fallen leaves,
this mountain water;
not a drop of it escapes,
for it is the ice that holds it.
- Meaning
- The mountain water that ran between the rocks and threaded its way through the fallen leaves is held now without a single drop let through: it is the ice that stops it.
- Commentary
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Winter Poems 554
Headnote: "Ice stopping mountain water"
The topic is ice stopping mountain water. The mountain water that in autumn ran between the rocks, threading its way through the fallen leaves, is now held back without a single drop escaping, and what holds it is ice. The poem catches the mountain stream that once flowed now shut in by winter ice.
The next poem also tells of a waterfall stopped by ice, so two poems of ice halting the flow of water follow one another.
First line, “iwama yuku”: iwama is the space between rocks, running through it.
Second line, “konoha wakekoshi”: having come threading through the leaves, with shi the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, recalling the season of falling leaves.
Third line, “yamamizu o”: yamamizu is water flowing in the mountains.
Fourth line, “tsuyu morasanu wa”: tsuyu joins the sense of not at all with that of a drop of dew, what lets not a drop escape.
Fifth line, “kōri narikeri”: narikeri is assertive and exclamatory, closing on the realization that it is the ice.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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