Furu ame no ashi tomo otsuru namida kana komaka ni mono o omoi kudakeba

English Translation

Tears that fall until
they might be taken for the
falling rain's own threads —
since I break my thoughts up so
finely, and so break myself.

Meaning

Tears that fall until they might be taken for the rain's own threads — since I break my thoughts so finely, and break with them.

Commentary

51 Brooding on a Day of Rain

It was the twenty-fourth, and the rain fell very quietly and touched the heart. Toward evening a letter came, a great rarity. It said that he had let the days go by because he had been afraid of the terrible look of things. She sent no answer. On the twenty-fifth the rain still did not stop, and in her idleness, as in the old line about hills one never thought of, things came into her mind as they would; and what did not run out was tears. This is the poem that came to her then.
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.
It is the twenty-fifth of the third month of the second year of Tenroku, and the place is the author's dwelling.
A rare letter had come the day before and she had not answered it; on the twenty-fifth the rain still had not stopped, and as she sat idle with her thoughts, what would not be exhausted was her tears. The poem came to her then.
At the end of the third month she moved to her father's house, taking the chance to avoid a period of abstinence, and there began a long fast.

The opening sets the scene before her and hands on to the second line. The word there means the fine streaks of falling rain, and some read into it a second sense of what is bad. To fall so that they might be taken for rain is to measure the tears against the rain. The third line closes on an exclamation and prepares the reason that follows. The fourth means finely, catching both the thinness of the rain and the minuteness of her brooding. The verb at the close means to break into pieces, so that raindrops breaking and a heart breaking small come together. Fine rain, fine tears and fine thoughts run into one another, and scene and feeling are joined by a single adjective. Given that the narrative records a rare letter the day before, to which she sent no reply, these are tears with no one to see them, and nothing but rain to set beside them.

Author

The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other