Yara no saki tsukikage samushi okitsudori kamo to iu fune ukine surashimo

也良の崎月影寒し沖つ鳥
鴨といふ舟浮寝すらしも

Roma-ji: Yara no saki tsukikage samushi okitsudori kamo to iu fune ukine surashimo
English Translation: At Cape Yara
how cold is the moonlight;
bird of the offing,
the boat they call the Wild Duck
seems to sleep upon the waves.
Meaning: At Cape Yara the moonlight is cold; the boat called the Wild Duck seems to be sleeping afloat upon the waves.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 569

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Mooring on a journey"
At Cape Yara in Tsukushi the moon shines cold, and the boat named Wild Duck seems to pass the night afloat. Drawing on the words of a Man'yōshū poem and a distant place name, it paints the chill of a night moored on the road.
Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a sign of praise, noting that Cape Yara is in Tsukushi, that the poem draws on the Man'yōshū verse about the boat Wild Duck and the guard of Cape Yara, and that the choice of such an unexpected place is delightful. The Ruijū text places it among the "poems found in other and printed texts."

Line 1 names Cape Yara on Nokonoshima in Chikuzen.
Line 2 means "the moonlight is cold," with a break after the line.
Line 3, okitsudori, is a pillow word for "wild duck."
Line 4 means "the boat called Wild Duck," from the Man'yōshū, taking up "until I moor my boat" in the preceding poem.
Line 5 means "seems to sleep afloat," rashi conjectural and mo exclamatory, overlaying a duck asleep on the water and a boat at anchor.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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