高瀬舟棹の音にぞ知られける
葦間の氷一重しにけり
葦間の氷一重しにけり
- Roma-ji
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Takasebune sao no oto ni zo shirarekeru ashima no kōri hitoe shinikeri
- English Translation
-
From the shallow-boat
by the sound of its pole
it came to be known:
among the reeds the ice
has formed a single layer
- Meaning
- By the sound of the shallow boat's pole I came to know it: among the reeds, ice has formed in a single thin layer.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 271
By the sound of a shallow river boat's pole striking ice, the poet learns that a single thin layer of ice has formed among the reeds. The wit lies in knowing the first ice not by sight but by sound.
Poem 296 in this book also sings of a shallow boat and ice, depicting a boat held fast by ice. The thin ice here and the ice that traps the boat there answer each other, marking the deepening of winter.
From poem 271 through poem 275 in this book come poems on ice.
First line, 'takasebune', is a flat-bottomed river boat that plies the shallows, also sung in poem 296 in this book.
Second line, 'sao no oto ni zo', means by the sound of its pole, zo binding with the attributive keru in the third line.
Third line, 'shirarekeru', means it came to be known, the spontaneous ru with the exclamatory keri. The poem breaks after the third line and the lower half is inverted.
Fourth line, 'ashima no kōri', means the ice among the reeds.
Final line, 'hitoe shinikeri', means it has formed in a single layer, showing the ice is newly and thinly formed.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Awajishima kayou chidori no naku koe ni ikuyo nezamenu suma no sekimori
- Next Poem
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Tanigawa no yodomi ni musubu kōri koso miru hito mo naki kagami narikere