言の葉のうつろふだにもあるものを
いとど時雨の降りまさるらむ
いとど時雨の降りまさるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Koto no ha no utsurou dani mo aru mono o itodo shigure no furimasaruramu
- English Translation
-
Your leaves of words fade
and change their color, and this
alone is enough;
why then must the late-autumn rain
come falling ever harder?
- Meaning
- It is hard enough that your words fade and change like autumn leaves; why must the cold rain of late autumn fall ever harder?
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1241
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence lamenting estrangement through images of autumn and winter. It is painful enough that your words fade and change, the speaker grieves; why must the late-autumn rain fall ever harder? The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and a lady-in-waiting to Fujiwara no Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda. She won Emperor Uda's favor and later bore Nakatsukasa to Prince Atsuyoshi. She is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The first line, "koto no ha no," likens words to leaves and is tied as an associated word to "utsurou" in the second line and "shigure" in the fourth.
In the second line, "utsurou dani mo," "utsurou" means both the changing color of leaves and the changing of the other's words and heart. "Dani" means "even" and conveys that this alone is painful enough.
The third line, "aru mono o," is concessive and runs on: "painful enough, and yet."
The fourth line, "itodo shigure no," means "the late-autumn rain all the more." The shigure is the rain that colors and scatters leaves, and here it is imagined as hastening the change of heart. It also suggests the author's own falling tears.
In the last line, "furimasaruramu," "ramu" conjectures a cause: "why must it fall ever harder?" The poem ends as the rain is added to the fading of words and grief grows.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Katagata ni hikiwakaretsutsu ayamegusa aranu ne o ya wa kakemu to omoishi
- Next Poem
-
Fuku kaze ni tsukete mo towamu sasagani no kayoishi michi wa sora ni tayu tomo