Tare mo mina namida no ame ni sekikanenu sora mo ikaga wa tsurenakarubeki

English Translation

Every one of us
fails to hold back the rain
of falling tears—
how could the sky above
remain unmoved, then?

Meaning

Every one of us is unable to hold back the rain of tears—how, then, could the sky itself remain unmoved?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 842

Headnote: "Written on the sliding door of the hall as I was leaving, when a Buddhist memorial service was held for our mother at the house in Awataguchi, all my brothers and sisters gathered and were once more remembering her as she had been, and just then the rain darkened the sky and fell."
This is the second poem of the sequence remembering the dead at memorial services and graves. It says that every one of them is unable to hold back the rain of tears, and asks how the sky could remain unmoved. According to the headnote, when a Buddhist service for their mother was held at the house in Awataguchi, all the siblings gathered and were remembering her again, and just then rain darkened the sky and fell, so on leaving he wrote this poem on the sliding door of the hall.
The son of Palace Minister Fujiwara no Kanemasa, the author served as Major Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards and later rose to Minister of the Right.
The scene is the rain on the day of the service for his mother, set in the family chapel of the house at Awataguchi.
The direct occasion is the rain that began to fall while the siblings gathered at the service for their mother were remembering her.
Awataguchi is an area at the foot of Higashiyama, east of the capital, marking the point where the Tōkaidō road entered the city.

The first line, "tare mo mina," means "every one of" the gathered siblings.
In the second line, "namida no ame ni," "namida no ame," the rain of tears, is tears flowing like rain. Taking up "the rain darkened the sky" from the headnote, it lays tears over the actual rain.
In the third line, "sekikanenu," "seku" means to dam a flow, and "kanu" means to be unable to. It means "cannot hold back the tears." The poem pauses after the third line.
In the fourth line, "sora mo ikaga wa," "ikaga wa" is rhetorical, meaning "how could it be?"
In the last line, "tsurenakarubeki," "tsurenashi" means to be unmoved or indifferent. With everyone weeping, how could the sky alone remain unmoved? The falling rain is seen as the sky weeping too. Following the preceding poem, 841, which sang of tears on his teacher's first anniversary, this poem sings of tears on the day of a service for a mother, linking human tears and the rain from the sky.

Author

Fujiwara no Tadatsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other