東路の道の冬草枯れにけり
夜な夜な霜や置きまさるらむ
夜な夜な霜や置きまさるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Azumaji no michi no fuyukusa karenikeri yonayona shimo ya okimasaruramu
- English Translation
-
On the eastern road
all the grasses of the winter
have withered away;
night by night does the frost
lie ever thicker there?
- Meaning
- The winter grasses along the eastern road have withered; does the frost lie heavier there night after night?
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 328
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Frost"
Seeing the winter grasses along the eastern road withered, the poet wonders whether the frost settles ever more heavily night after night. Against the pond grasses of the preceding poem, he sings here the grasses of a road, imagining the frost with the same design. For the poet living in Kamakura, the eastern road was a familiar one.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on frost."
Line 1, azumaji, is the road from the capital to the eastern provinces, or the East itself.
Line 2 is the winter grass along the road, pairing with "the water grasses of the pond" in the preceding poem.
Line 3 is the same as that of the preceding poem, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "night after night." Where "all through the long night" in the preceding poem sang one night, this sings many nights laid one upon another. The same word appears in 334.
Line 5 concludes ya with ramu, wondering whether the frost settles ever more thickly.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Ōsawa no ike no mizukusa karenikeri nagaki yosugara shimo ya okuramu
- Next Poem
-
Hanasusuki karetaru nobe ni oku shimo no musubōretsutsu fuyu wa kinikeri