Ōzora wa kumorazu nagara kannazuki toshi no furu ni mo sode wa nurekeri

English Translation

The wide sky is not
clouded over — and yet, in
the godless month, as
the years go by and the rains
fall, my sleeves are wet through still

Meaning

The wide sky is not clouded over; and yet, in the godless month, as the years go by and the rains fall, my sleeves are wet through.

Commentary

110 Though the Years Pass

The same daughter of Minamoto no Muneyuki sent this poem to someone. The prose says no more, and the section consists of this single poem.
She appears in the hundred and eighth and hundred and ninth sections with the poems about the pinks and the ox. Of the recipient the prose says only that it was a certain person.
The season is the tenth month of the old calendar, the season of cold intermittent rains.
The prose records nothing of what prompted it, saying only that she sent it to someone.
The section ends with the poem; no reply and no later event is recorded. It is the last of three consecutive sections given to Muneyuki's daughter.

The opening says the sky is not clouded, its concessive carrying on: and yet. There is no reason for rain, and that is set down first.
The tenth month of the old calendar is the season of the cold rains, so that a clear sky and a rainy season stand side by side.
The verb in the fourth line means both the passing of years and the falling of rain, so that time going by and rain coming down are one word.
The closing marks the discovery that her sleeves are wet. What wets them is not rain but tears, and because the sky was declared clear at the outset, no other cause is available. What does not change with the years is stated through the season of the rains.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other