Yayo shigure mono omou sode no nakariseba konoha no nochi ni nani o somemashi

English Translation

Listen, winter showers—
were there no sleeve of mine
lost in brooding thought,
once the leaves had gone,
what would you have left to dye?

Meaning

Listen, winter showers: if there were no sleeves of one lost in brooding thought, what would you find to dye once the leaves are gone?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 580

Headnote: "On winter showers."
This is the eleventh poem of the winter-showers sequence. Calling out to the showers, the speaker asks what they would find to dye after the leaves are gone, were there no sleeves of one lost in brooding thought. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of winter showers.
The author, "Former Archbishop Jien," is Jien. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, he served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical work Gukanshō.
The scene is the season of showers after the leaves have fallen, and the place is beside one lost in brooding thought.
The direct occasion is the topic "Winter Showers."

In the first line, "yayo shigure," "yayo" is a word of address, calling directly to the showers, and the poem breaks after the first line. Where 554 in this book called out to a raftsman, here the speaker addresses the showers, which are not human at all.
The second line, "mono omou sode no," refers to the sleeves of one sunk in brooding thought and runs to eight syllables, one over the count. It points to sleeves dyed by the tears of such brooding.
The third line, "nakariseba," means "if there were none," with "seba" answering "mashi" in the last line to form a counterfactual.
The fourth line, "konoha no nochi ni," means "after the leaves." Showers were held to dye the leaves, and this refers to the time after those leaves have all fallen.
The last line, "nani o somemashi," means "what would you dye? There would be nothing," closing with the counterfactual auxiliary "mashi." Taking up the notion that showers dye the leaves, the poem turns a reasoned argument: showers still fall in leafless winter in order to dye the sleeves of those who brood. Where 577 in this book sang of lower leaves that even the showers could not dye, this poem brings forward sleeves as what the showers dye, turning the robes and sleeves merely wet with showers in the poems before into something the showers color.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other