衣手に余呉の浦風冴え冴えて
己高山に雪降りにけり
己高山に雪降りにけり
- Roma-ji
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Koromode ni yogo no urakaze saezaete kodakamiyama ni yuki furinikeri
- English Translation
-
Against my sleeves
the wind off Yogo's inlet
blows ever more chill,
and upon Mount Kodakami
snow has fallen now
- Meaning
- The wind off the inlet of Yogo blows ever colder against my sleeves, and snow has fallen on Mount Kodakami.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 278
Because the wind blowing from Lake Yogo against the poet's sleeves is so bitterly cold, the poet knows that snow has fallen on nearby Mount Kodakami. Moving from the chill felt on the skin to the snow on the mountain, the poem layers poetic places of Ōmi to draw a winter lakeside scene.
Following the preceding poem, 277, which surmised snow on the peaks from nearby icicles, this poem too learns of snow on the mountain from the chill of a nearby wind.
Poems 277 through 293 in this book center on snow, with poems on falconry set among them at 281 through 283.
First line, 'koromode ni', means against my sleeves, setting a scene in which the cold of the wind is felt on the skin.
Second line, 'yogo no urakaze', is the wind blowing over Lake Yogo in Ōmi.
Third line, 'saezaete', means growing colder and colder, repeating sae to stress the cold.
Fourth line, 'kodakamiyama ni', is a mountain near Lake Yogo in Ōmi.
Final line, 'yuki furinikeri', means snow has fallen, closing with the exclamatory keri. Where the preceding poem, 277, said only that snow must have fallen, this poem states it outright.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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