はらの池の葦間のつららしげければ
絶え絶え月の影は澄みけり
絶え絶え月の影は澄みけり
- Roma-ji
-
Hara no ike no ashima no tsurara shigekereba taedae tsuki no kage wa sumikeri
- English Translation
-
On Hara Pond
among the reeds the ice
lies thick and close,
so only here and there
the moonlight shines so clear.
- Meaning
- On Hara Pond the ice lies thick among the reeds, so the moonlight shines clear upon the water only here and there.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 339
Headnote: "Winter moon over a pond"
This poem was composed on the theme of the winter moon over a pond. Because the ice lies thick among the reeds of Hara Pond, the moonlight shines clear on the water only here and there. On a surface broken up by ice and reeds, the poet sees the cold, clear light of the winter moon.
The Ruijū and Teika texts give line 3 as shigekeredo, "though thick," but this edition follows the source text.
Line 1 is hypermetric, naming a pond whose location is uncertain.
Line 2 is the ice spread on the water among the reeds.
Line 3 means "because it is thick," a fixed condition leading to the result.
Line 4 describes the moon reflected in fragments between ice and reeds.
Line 5: the exclamatory keri expresses the realization that the moonlight is clear. Poems on the winter moon follow, a lake in the next poem and a river in the one after.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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