Kawakaze ni chidori nakiken fuyu no yo wa waga omoi nite arikeru mono o

川風に千鳥鳴きけん冬の夜は
我が思ひにてありけるものを

Roma-ji: Kawakaze ni chidori nakiken fuyu no yo wa waga omoi nite arikeru mono o
English Translation: In the river wind
the plovers cried, so they said,
on that winter night—
but it was my own longing
all along, had they but known.
Meaning: That winter night when, they say, the plovers cried in the river wind—it was really my own longing all along.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1502

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on Love"
The closing poem of the ten on love. The winter night when, as an old poem says, plovers cried in the river wind was in truth his own love's longing.
It appears to allude to Ki no Tsurayuki's poem in the Shūishū, "Unable to bear it, I go to my love; on the winter night the river wind is cold and the plovers cry." Recasting the scene of the old poem, the cold of a winter night on the way to the beloved, as his own longing, it closes the ten love poems.

First line, “kawakaze ni”: in the wind blowing over the river, drawing on “kawakaze samumi” in the source poem.
Second line, “chidori nakiken”: ken marks hearsay about the past, "the plovers cried, it is said."
Third line, “fuyu no yo wa”: taking up “fuyu no yo no” of the source poem.
Fourth line, “waga omoi nite”: being my own longing.
Fifth line, “arikeru mono o”: mono o is concessive and exclamatory, "it was so, though."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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