波枕いかに浮き寝を定むらむ
氷ますだの池の鴛鳥
氷ますだの池の鴛鳥
- Roma-ji
-
Namimakura ika ni ukine o sadamuramu kōri masuda no ike no oshidori
- English Translation
-
Pillowed on the waves,
how can they ever settle
a place for floating sleep,
on Masuda's pond of growing ice,
the mandarin ducks
- Meaning
- With only the waves for a pillow, how do the mandarin ducks on Masuda Pond, where the ice grows thicker, find a place for their floating sleep?
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 297
On Masuda Pond, where the ice spreads further day by day, how can the mandarin ducks, pillowed on the waves, find a place for their floating sleep? With masuda meaning both the place Masuda and the ice that masu, increases, the poet worries for the birds on a winter pond whose open water is shrinking.
The next poem, 298, also sings of the solitary winter sleep of a mandarin duck, and two poems on mandarin ducks stand side by side.
First line, 'namimakura', means a pillow of waves, sleeping on the water.
Second line, 'ika ni ukine o', means how their floating sleep, ukine being sleep while floating on the water.
Third line, 'sadamuramu', means do they settle, using the present conjecture ramu. The poem breaks after the third line and the lower half is inverted.
Fourth line, 'kōri masuda no', is a pivot word in which masuda is both the place Masuda Pond in Yamato and masu, the ice increasing, left in kana.
Final line, 'ike no oshidori', are the mandarin ducks of the pond, closing with a noun. The next poem, 298, also sings of mandarin ducks.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Tsunaganedo nagare mo yukazu takasebune musubu kōri no tokenu kagiri wa
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Samushiro ni omoi koso yare sasa no ha ni sayuru shimoyo no oshi no hitorine