Ori koso are nagame ni kakaru ukigumo no sode mo hitotsu ni uchishiguretsutsu

English Translation

Of all times, just now,
drifting clouds hang in the gaze
of my long rains of brooding,
and my sleeves become as one with them,
wet with showers on and on

Meaning

Of all times, just now, the drifting clouds that hang over the sky I gaze at in brooding thought let fall their showers, and my sleeves, become one with that sky, are wet with showers again and again.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 584

Headnote: "When I presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the fifteenth poem of the winter-showers sequence. Showers fall from the drifting clouds in the sky gazed at in brooding thought, and the speaker's sleeves, become one with that sky, are wet with showers on and on. According to the headnote, it was composed when a hundred-poem sequence was presented.
The author, "Nijō-in no Sanuki," is Nijō-in no Sanuki. A daughter of Minamoto no Yorimasa, she served Emperor Nijō as a lady-in-waiting.
The scene is early winter as the showers fall, and the place is where one gazes at the sky in brooding thought.
The direct occasion is the presentation of a hundred-poem sequence. The headnote does not record for which gathering the hundred poems were composed.

The first line, "ori koso are," means "of all times," "just at this moment." The particle "koso" is answered by the perfective "are," which leads on concessively. It is an opening in the same spirit as "toki shimo are" in the first line of 568 in this book.
In the second line, "nagame ni kakaru," "nagame" carries both "gazing in brooding thought" and "long rains." "Long rains" works as an associated word for the showers.
The third line, "ukigumo no," refers to clouds drifting in the sky.
The fourth line, "sode mo hitotsu ni," means "my sleeves too, become one with the clouds." Just as the clouds let fall their showers, the sleeves are wet with tears of brooding.
The last line, "uchishiguretsutsu," means "wet with showers on and on," with "uchi" an intensifying prefix and "tsutsu" expressing continuance. The showers of the sky and the tears on the sleeve are caught in a single verb. Where the preceding poem laid the wish to leave the world over the moon in a sky of showers, this poem lays tears of brooding over that sky, continuing a run of poems that draw the scene of showers into the speaker's own life.

Author

Nijoin no Sanuki

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other