Shirakumo no kono kata ni shimo oriiru wa amatsukaze koso fukite kitsurashi

English Translation

That the white cloud has
come down and settled here, on
this side, on this shoulder
must be because a wind out
of heaven has blown it to me

Meaning

That the white cloud has come down and settled here, on this shoulder of mine, must be because a wind out of heaven blew it to me.

Commentary

132 The Moon Like a Drawn Bow

In the same reign of Emperor Daigo, Ōshikōchi no Mitsune was summoned; and on a night when the moon was very beautiful, with music being made, the emperor said that the moon was sometimes called a drawn bow, and asked on what thought that rested, bidding him give the reason in a poem. Kneeling at the foot of the steps, Mitsune offered "Teru tsuki o yumihari to shimo iu koto wa yamabe o sashite ireba narikeri". He was then given a robe as a reward for the poem, and on that robe he composed "Shirakumo no kono kata ni shimo oriiru wa amatsukaze koso fukite kitsurashi". That is the whole of the section.
Ōshikōchi no Mitsune was one of the compilers of the Kokin-shū and is counted among the thirty-six poetic immortals; he presents a poem to the Teiji retired emperor in the thirty-third section. Emperor Daigo appears in the hundred and thirty-first section as the late emperor.
The setting is the same night, at the moment the robe was given him.
What prompted the poem was that gift. It was composed on the robe itself.
The section closes with it. The earlier poem answered a question set him; this one is his thanks for the reward.

The white cloud is the robe he has been given. Such rewards were received across the shoulder, and the posture is that of a cloud coming down.
The word in the second line means both this direction and a shoulder, so that a cloud settling and a robe laid on the shoulder are one word.
The wind out of heaven is the emperor's favour.
The closing supposes, on good grounds, that a wind blew it there. Stated as the plain fact that a cloud comes down when the wind brings it, it says that the robe came by the emperor's kindness. He offers no thanks in words; the whole is carried by a wind out of heaven.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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