Meet the Poets of Hyakunin Isshu
Ōtomo no Yakamochi

Meaning

Looking up at the Milky Way that magpies wing across — its white shimmer seems to be scattered frost. The night deepens.

Commentary

The "magpie bridge" evokes the legend of Tanabata: on the seventh night of the seventh month, a flock of magpies spreads their wings to form a bridge across the Milky Way so that the Weaver Star and the Cowherd Star may meet.

The poet gazes at the Milky Way glittering like frost in the deep of a winter night, and in that brilliance feels the lateness of the hour.

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