月影の白きを見ればかささぎの
渡せる橋に霜や置きけむ
渡せる橋に霜や置きけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tsukikage no shiroki o mireba kasasagi no wataseru hashi ni shimo ya okikemu
- English Translation
-
When I see how white
the moonlight shines, I wonder—
on the bridge the magpies
lay across the River of Heaven,
has the frost already settled?
- Meaning
- Seeing how white the moonlight shines, I wonder: has frost settled on the bridge the magpies spread across the River of Heaven?
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 343
Headnote: "On moonlight resembling frost"
This poem was composed on the theme of moonlight resembling frost. Seeing the moonlight shining white, the poet wonders whether frost has settled on the bridge the magpies are said to spread across the River of Heaven. He takes up directly, as a theme, the conceit of the preceding poem that likens moonlight to frost.
The poem takes as its source the Shin Kokin Wakashū poem by Chūnagon Yakamochi, in which the whiteness of frost on the magpies' bridge tells that the night has grown late. Using that poem's "when I see how white" and "the bridge the magpies lay," it reverses the design: rather than knowing the late hour from the white frost, the poet imagines frost from the white moonlight. The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on moonlight resembling frost" and line 5 as shimo zo okikeru, and the Teika text gives shimo zo okinikeru.
Line 1, tsukikage, is the light of the moon.
Line 2 is the same as line 4 of the source poem, "when I see its whiteness."
Line 3 draws on the legend that on the night of Tanabata magpies line up their wings to bridge the River of Heaven.
Line 4 is the same as line 2 of the source poem, the bridge laid by the magpies.
Line 5 concludes ya with kemu, the attributive of the past conjectural, wondering whether frost has settled.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Ama no hara sora o samukemi nubatama no yo wataru tsuki ni matsukaze zo fuku