Toki shimo are kaku samidare no tamasaka ni ochikatabito no hito mo koso fure

English Translation

Of all times, now, with
the fifth-month rains coming down
like this — the far-off
person, who was rare enough
before, lets the days fall past.

Meaning

Of all times, now, with the fifth-month rains coming down like this: the far-off person, rare enough before, lets the days fall past as the rain falls.

Commentary

35 Exchange with Kaneie in the Mountain Temple

While they were still fixing on the end of the third month for the shooting, events in the world intervened and the match was forgotten: there was the uproar of the Minister of the Left of Nishinomiya being sent into exile. Then, past the twentieth of the month of the fifth-month rains, with a period of abstinence upon him and a long fast begun, Kaneie shut himself up in a mountain temple. Gazing out at the heavy rain he wrote, no doubt, that it was a very forlorn place. She answered with a poem, and a reply came. And while all this went on, the intercalary fifth month arrived.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke and would rise to be regent and chancellor. A long fast means a protracted period of abstinence and religious observance. This year carried an intercalary fifth month, so that there were two fifth months in it.
It is past the twentieth of the fifth month of the second year of Anna, and the places are the mountain temple where Kaneie was shut up and the author's dwelling.
Kaneie, under abstinence and having begun a long fast, was shut up in a mountain temple; gazing out at the heavy rain he wrote that the place was very forlorn. This poem is her answer.
Kaneie replied with "Mashimizu no mashite hodo furu mono naraba onaji nurema ni mo ori mo tachinamu." While this went on, the intercalary fifth month arrived.

The opening means: of all times — beginning from the complaint that it should be just now. The second line means that the fifth-month rains are coming down like this, pointing to the coincidence of his retreat with the season of long rain. The third means rarely, and adds that his visits were infrequent to begin with. The fourth names one who is far away, referring to Kaneie in his mountain temple, though it carries as well the sense that he has long been a distant man. The verb at the close means both that rain falls and that time passes, and the poem turns on it: the continuance of the rain and the passing of days without a meeting are held in one word, so that the long rain at the temple becomes the length of the interval itself. To a man complaining of a forlorn place she answers by drawing the matter round to a count of days — sympathizing in form while pressing the scarcity of his visits. The base text is disturbed here, and the reading of the closing line is not settled.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other