Sadame naku shigururu sora no murakumo ni ikutabi onaji tsuki o matsuran

English Translation

Without a steady course
the winter showers cross the sky;
in the scattered clouds
how many times must I await
the one same moon again?

Meaning

In the scattered clouds of a sky where the winter showers come and go without any fixed course, how many times must I wait for the same moon to appear again?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 596

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth poem of the winter-moon sequence. Through the scattered clouds of a sky where the showers come and go without any fixed course, the speaker waits again and again for the same moon to appear. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Minamoto no Yasumitsu," is Minamoto no Yasumitsu. Nothing certain is recorded of his dates, lineage, or offices.
The scene is a winter night of showers, and the place is where one waits for the moon.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "sadame naku," means "without a fixed course," describing the showers that fall and stop. As in 586 of this book, which sang "the showers keep no steady course," the inconstancy of the showers is set at the opening.
The second line, "shigururu sora no," means "of the sky where the showers fall."
The third line, "murakumo ni," means "in the scattered clouds." The clouds that let fall their showers and move on hide the moon and reveal it again.
The fourth line, "ikutabi onaji," means "how many times the same," taking up "ikutabi" from "ikutabi sode ni" in the second line of the preceding poem.
The last line, "tsuki o matsuran," means "must I wait for the moon?" with "ran" as an auxiliary of present conjecture. The poem sings of waiting anew each time for the one same moon that hides in the clouds and reappears. Where the preceding poem sang of a moon clouding again and again in the tears on a sleeve, this poem sings of a moon hidden again and again by clouds in the sky, so that sleeve and sky form a pair of moons clouded "how many times." The next poem, 597, also sings of "the moon in scattered clouds."

Author

Minamoto no Yasumitsu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other