Nubatama no imo ga kurokami uchinabiki fuyu fukaki yo ni shimo zo okikeru

烏羽玉の妹が黒髪うちなびき
冬深き夜に霜ぞ置きける

Roma-ji: Nubatama no imo ga kurokami uchinabiki fuyu fukaki yo ni shimo zo okikeru
English Translation: Black as the berry,
the dark hair of my beloved
lies spread out loose,
and in the deep winter night
the frost has come to settle.
Meaning: My beloved's black hair lies spread and flowing, and in the depths of the winter night the frost has settled.
Commentary: Winter Poems 330

Headnote: "Frost late at night"
This poem was composed on the theme of frost late at night. On a deep winter night, as the black hair of the beloved lies spread and flowing, frost has settled. The black of the hair against the white of the frost conveys the depth and chill of the winter night.
In the Man'yōshū, Empress Iwanohime sings of waiting for her lord until frost settles on her flowing black hair, and the pairing of black hair and frost goes back to that poem. The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Frost of the deep night," and the Teika text gives line 5 as shimo zo okinikeru. Kamo no Mabuchi criticized uchinabiki in line 3, saying that using it to mean lying long and outstretched is a later usage, and that in the Man'yōshū neither uchinabiku nor uchinabiki has that sense.

Line 1, nubatama no, is a pillow word for "black."
Line 2 is the black hair of a beloved woman.
Line 3 describes the hair lying spread and flowing. This is the line whose usage Kamo no Mabuchi criticized.
Line 4 means "in the deep winter night."
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with keru, the attributive of the past keri. The poem closes on the contrast of white frost laid upon black hair.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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