Naki hito no katami no kumo ya shigururan yūbe no ame ni iro wa miene do

English Translation

The cloud that is left
as a keepsake of the dead—
does it shower down?
In the rain of the evening
no color can be seen.

Meaning

Is the cloud that is the keepsake of the dead sending down these showers? In the evening rain, its color cannot be seen.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 803

Headnote: "On the topic 'Impermanence in the Rain.'"
This is the fourth poem of the sequence remembering the dead through the things of winter. It wonders whether the cloud that is the keepsake of the dead is sending down showers, though its color cannot be seen in the evening rain. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Impermanence in the Rain."
A son of Emperor Takakura, the author governed as retired emperor after abdicating and ordered the compilation of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is an evening of winter showers, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Impermanence in the Rain."
In the text, the third line carries a note changing "ho" in "shihoruran" to "ku." The note is followed here, reading "shigururan."

The first line, "naki hito no," means "of the one who is gone," and modifies "katami no kumo" in the second line.
In the second line, "katami no kumo ya," "katami no kumo," the cloud that is a keepsake, is the smoke of the cremated dead that has risen into the sky and become a cloud. "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle, completed by "ran" in the third line.
In the third line, "shigururan," "shiguru" means for winter showers to fall. "Ran" expresses present conjecture and, taking up "ya" in the second line, closes as "is it sending down showers?" The poem pauses after the third line.
The fourth line, "yūbe no ame ni," takes up "in the rain" from the topic and speaks of rain falling at dusk.
In the last line, "iro wa miene do," "ne" is the realis form of the negative "zu" and "do" is concessive, meaning "though its color is not seen." The color of the cloud is lost in the rain, yet he imagines that rain as falling from the keepsake cloud. Taking up the evening smoke of the poem before last and of the preceding poem, 802, the scene moves from smoke to cloud and from cloud to winter showers, leading into the showers of the next poem, 804.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other