classic waka stream

片敷きの袖も凍りぬ冬の夜の
雨降りすさむ暁の空
Roma-ji

Katashiki no sode mo kōrinu fuyu no yo no ame furisusamu akatsuki no sora

English Translation
Even the sleeve
I spread to sleep alone is frozen;
the winter night's
rain is falling fiercely
in the sky before the dawn.
Meaning
Even the single sleeve I spread to sleep alone has frozen—the winter night's rain pours down from the sky before dawn.
Commentary
Winter Poems 333

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A winter night"
As the winter night's rain pours down toward dawn, even the single sleeve spread for sleeping alone has frozen. Where in the preceding poem frost froze the sleeve, here a sleeve wet with rain freezes, and the misery of lying awake alone until daybreak shows through.

Line 1 is the same as that of the preceding poem, carrying on the sleeve of one who sleeps alone.
Line 2: nu is the perfective auxiliary, and the poem pauses here. The sleeve on which frost congealed in the preceding poem is here frozen through.
Line 3 refers to the rain falling on the winter night.
Line 4 means "the rain falls fiercely."
Line 5 ends on a noun, showing the sky before dawn met without sleep. The night that "grew late as she waits" in the preceding poem here reaches the hour before dawn.
Author
Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source
Kinkaishu
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