Shigure ka to kikeba konoha no furu mono o sore ni mo nururu waga tamoto kana

English Translation

Winter showers, I thought,
listening—but it was leaves
falling all the while;
and yet even so they wet
the sleeves that I wear

Meaning

I listened, thinking it the winter showers, but it was only the leaves falling—and still my sleeves are wet, even from them.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 567

Headnote: "On the spirit of falling leaves, at the poetry contest held at the house of Lord Yorisuke."
This is the fifteenth poem of the falling-leaves sequence. What sounded like the winter showers was the falling of leaves, yet the speaker's sleeves are wet even so. According to the headnote, it was composed on the spirit of falling leaves at a poetry contest held at the house of Fujiwara no Yorisuke.
The author, "Fujiwara no Suketaka Ason," is Fujiwara no Suketaka. He was a courtier of the late Heian period who served as Minor Counselor. "Ason" is an honorific attached to the names of men of the Fourth and Fifth Ranks.
The scene is early winter as the leaves fall, and the place is somewhere the sound of falling leaves can be heard.
The direct occasion is the topic "Falling Leaves" at a poetry contest held at the house of Fujiwara no Yorisuke. The "Kyō" in "Yorisuke Kyō" is an honorific attached to the names of those of the Third Rank and above.

The first line, "shigure ka to," means "thinking it might be the winter showers." Hearing a sound, the speaker thinks of showers.
The second line, "kikeba konoha no," means "when I listened, it was the leaves," revealing that the sound taken for showers was really the leaves. Where 560 in this book caught the confusion of leaves and showers by sight, this poem catches it by ear.
In the third line, "furu mono o," "mono o" is a concessive conjunctive particle meaning "though leaves are falling." The leaves are said to "fall" like rain, a word drawn from the showers.
The fourth line, "sore ni mo nururu," means "wet even by them." Since it is not the showers, the sleeves should not be wet, yet they are, and the tears shed in the loneliness of falling leaves are thus revealed.
The last line, "waga tamoto kana," closes with the exclamatory particle "kana." To be wet from showers is only natural, but to be wet even from leaves shows, by this reasoning, the depth of the speaker's sorrow. Poem 575 in this book, in which the speaker cannot hear the showers through the roar of the withering wind and takes his wet sleeves to be wet from the crimson leaves, sings of the same confusion of showers and leaves from the opposite side.

Author

Fujiwara no Suketaka

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other