Teru tsuki no hikari saeyuku yado nareba aki no mizu ni mo kōri inikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

照る月の光さえゆく宿なれば
秋の水にも氷ゐにけり

Roma-ji: Teru tsuki no hikari saeyuku yado nareba aki no mizu ni mo kōri inikeri
English Translation: Since this is a house
where the light of the bright moon
grows ever colder,
even on the autumn water
a sheet of ice has formed
Meaning: Because the light of the shining moon grows ever colder over this house, even the autumn water seems to have frozen over.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 193

Because the shining moonlight grows cold and clear over the house, the water in the garden looks as if ice has formed, though it is still only autumn. Likening the white, cold gleam of moonlight on the water to ice, the poem depicts the chill beauty of an autumn night.
Its opening, 'the shining moon', is the same as that of poem 181 in this book. The conceit of seeing moonlight as ice appears again in poem 204 in this book.
From poem 174 through poem 217 in this book a long sequence of moon poems follows, from the evening moon through the bright moon of the fifteenth night of the Eighth Month to the moon at dawn, singing of the moon in all its aspects and of the heart that gazes on it.

First line, 'teru tsuki no', means of the shining moon, the same opening as poem 181 in this book.
Second line, 'hikari saeyuku', uses sayu, to grow cold and clear, for the moonlight becoming chill and pure.
Third line, 'yado nareba', means since it is such a house, a definite condition.
Fourth line, 'aki no mizu ni mo', means even on the autumn water, mo implying though it is not yet winter.
Final line, 'kōri inikeri', means ice has formed, likening the moonlight to ice, closing with the perfective nu and exclamatory keri.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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