Hare kumoru kage o miyako ni sakidatete shiguru to tsuguru yama no ha no tsuki

English Translation

Its now clear, now clouded light
it sends ahead to the capital,
telling us the showers
are already falling there—
the moon above the mountain ridge

Meaning

Sending its light, now clear and now clouded, ahead to the capital, the moon over the mountain ridge tells us that the winter showers are already falling in the hills.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 598

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the eighth poem of the winter-moon sequence. It sings of the moon over the mountain ridge, which sends its light, now clear and now clouded, ahead to the capital to announce that showers are falling in the hills. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author is not named in the original and continues from the preceding poem as Minamoto no Tomochika. A son of Minamoto no Moromitsu and the elder brother of Go-Toba-in no Kunaikyō, he served as a fellow of Retired Emperor Go-Toba's Bureau of Poetry.
The scene is a winter night with showers approaching, and the place is the capital, looking toward the moon over the mountain ridge.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The main text writes the last line as "yama no ha no tsuki" with the character for "leaf," but it means "yama no ha," the mountain ridge, and is written here with the character for "edge."

The first line, "hare kumoru," means "now clear, now clouded" and modifies "kage" in the second line. Like "hare kumori" in the first line of 586 in this book, it shows the shifting sky of the showers.
In the second line, "kage o miyako ni," "kage" means moonlight.
The third line, "sakidatete," means "sending ahead," "delivering first." It personifies the moon as sending its flickering light to the capital before the showers themselves arrive.
The fourth line, "shiguru to tsuguru," means "telling that the showers fall." The clearing and clouding of the mountain moon's light becomes the news that showers are falling in the hills.
The last line, "yama no ha no tsuki," closes on a noun, naming at the end the moon that brings the news. Where 585 in this book inferred showers in a village from clouds on Mount Ikoma, this poem, from within the capital, knows of showers in the hills by the flickering of the moon over the ridge, rendering in moonlight the device of knowing unseen showers from something visible.

Author

Minamoto no Tomochika

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other