Nagame wabi sore to wa nashi ni mono zo omou kumo no hatate no yūgure no sora - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

眺めわびそれとはなしにものぞ思ふ
雲のはたての夕暮の空

Roma-ji: Nagame wabi sore to wa nashi ni mono zo omou kumo no hatate no yūgure no sora
English Translation: Weary of gazing,
for no reason I can name
I sink into thought—
at the far edge of the clouds,
in the sky at close of day.
Meaning: Weary even of gazing, I find myself lost in thought for no reason I can name, beneath the evening sky where the clouds trail off to their farthest edge.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1106

Headnote: "At the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the third poem of the sequence on "nagame." Worn out even with gazing, the speaker sinks into thought for no particular reason, before the evening sky at the far edge of the clouds. According to the headnote, it was composed for the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Michiteru, Intendant of the Left Gate Guards," is Minamoto no Michiteru. The son of Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika, he later rose to grand chancellor.
The source poem is the anonymous Kokinshū poem, "At evening I sink into thought at the far edge of the clouds, longing for one as distant as the heavens."

The first line, "nagame wabi," means "weary even of gazing in thought." Taking up "nagamuru kata" from the preceding poem, the sequence on gazing continues.
The second line, "sore to wa nashi ni," means "for no particular reason." Against "sore to" in "nagame wa sore to shirinagara" of poem 1104 in this book, this poem sings "sore to wa nashi ni," a brooding without a settled cause.
The third line, "mono zo omou," means "I sink into thought," the particle "zo" answered by the attributive "omou." It is a hypermetric line of six syllables, and the poem breaks after the third line. The line is taken unchanged from the third line of the source poem.
The fourth line, "kumo no hatate no," means "at the far edge of the clouds," taking "kumo no hatate ni" from the second line of the source poem.
The last line, "yūgure no sora," ends on a noun. Where the source poem brooded over a beloved as distant as the heavens, this poem names no beloved and lets the brooding drift into the evening sky itself.
Author: Minamoto no Michiteru
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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