Hisakata no ame ni shioruru kimi yue ni tsukihi mo shirade koiwataruran

English Translation

In the far heavens,
in the rain, drenched and drooping,
for our lord's sake
not knowing moon or sun,
do we go on longing still?

Meaning

For our lord, who has gone up to the far heavens and lies drenched in the rain, do we go on longing, heedless of the passing of moons and suns?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 849

Headnote: "On seeing the Nara Emperor laid to rest."
This is the first poem of the sequence of lament poems by poets of older times. It wonders whether, for the emperor drenched in the rain, people will go on longing heedless of the passing months and days. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the Nara Emperor laid to rest.
A poet of the Asuka period and one of the leading poets of the Man'yōshū, the author was later revered as the Sage of Poetry. The "Nara Emperor" is a name for an emperor of the age when the capital was at Nara, but there is no settled view as to whom it refers.
The scene is the funeral of the emperor, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is seeing the emperor's funeral.

The first line, "hisakata no," is a pillow word attached to "ame," heaven or rain, "tsuki," the moon, and the like.
In the second line, "ame ni shioruru," "ame" is a pivot word meaning both "ame," the heaven to which the emperor has gone up, and "ame," the rain falling on the day of the funeral. "Shioru" means to droop, soaked.
In the third line, "kimi yue ni," "yue ni" means "for the sake of." "Kimi" refers to the late emperor.
In the fourth line, "tsukihi mo shirade," "tsukihi," moon and sun, sings through "hisakata no" and "ame" of the moon and sun in the heavens, and at the same time means the passing months and days. "De" is a negative connective, meaning "without knowing the passing of time."
In the last line, "koiwataruran," "wataru" means to go on doing something. "Ran" expresses present conjecture, meaning "do we go on longing?" From the poems of Heian poets that ran to the preceding poem, 848, the book moves here to poems by poets of older times, and poems by Ono no Komachi, Ariwara no Narihira, Emperor Daigo, and others follow.

Author

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other