Niwa yori wa sagi iru matsu no kozue ni zo yuki wa tsumoreru natsu no yo no tsuki

庭よりは鷺ゐる松の梢にぞ
雪は積もれる夏の夜の月

Roma-ji: Niwa yori wa sagi iru matsu no kozue ni zo yuki wa tsumoreru natsu no yo no tsuki
English Translation: Rather than the garden,
on the pine where herons rest,
up among the boughs,
it is there the snow lies piled—
moonlight on a summer night.
Meaning: Not in the garden but up in the pine boughs where the herons rest is where the snow seems piled, under the moon on a summer night.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1076

Headnote: "Visiting Tennōji, I saw herons perched in a pine by the light of the moon and composed this"
Visiting Tennōji, Saigyō saw herons perched in a pine in the moonlight. Under the summer moon, it is not the garden but the pine boughs where the herons perch that look heaped with snow.
Taking white herons and moonlight together as snow, the poem conjures a snowscape on a summer night. Comparing moonlight to snow is traditional, but setting herons in the pine to pile snow on its boughs is fresh.

First line, “niwa yori wa”: rather than the garden whitened by moonlight, a comparison.
Second line, “sagi iru matsu no”: of the pine where herons perch.
Third line, “kozue ni zo”: zo is emphatic, answered by the attributive tsumoreru in the fourth line.
Fourth line, “yuki wa tsumoreru”: snow lies piled, herons and moonlight seen as snow.
Fifth line, “natsu no yo no tsuki”: ending on a noun, the surprise of snow in summer is shown to be the moon's work.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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